PPAI has named Daryll Harris Griffin, MAS, president of Atlanta-based distributor Accolades, Inc. (PPAI 103067) as the 2019 H. Ted Olson Humanitarian of the Year. Griffin will be honored during the Chairman’s Leadership Dinner on January 14, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center during The PPAI Expo in Las Vegas.

An Atlanta native, Griffin founded Accolades, Inc. in 1990. Prior to starting the marketing firm, she had a distinguished career with Xerox Corporation, earning both Xerox’s Distinguished Service and Achievement Awards, and she was a public school teacher in Dekalb County, Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri.

Accolades, Inc. specializes in corporate branding, and its clients include Fortune 100 and 500 corporations, colleges/universities, small businesses and nonprofits. She has been featured in PPB magazine and has received the Greater Women’s Business Council’s Trailblazer Award, the Innovation Award from Turner Broadcasting, Star Supplier from Coca-Cola Enterprises, and was featured twice in the Atlanta Tribune's Salute to Black Businesses. The Atlanta Business League has honored her with the League’s Leadership Award for her service, and in 2015 Accolades was inducted into the Atlanta Business League Hall of Fame. She is a Top 100 Woman of Influence and received the Trumpet Award, High Heels in High Places.

An active member of PPAI and the Georgia Association of Promotional Products Professionals (GAPPP), Griffin has served the industry since 2003 on numerous committees, task forces and advisory groups, including PPAI’s Certification, Leadership and Membership Services committees. She is an industry advocate and speaker, and in 2016 she was recognized as a PPAI Fellow.

Griffin has a long history of dedicating her time and energy serving the community and mentoring others. She currently serves on the board of the YWCA of Greater Atlanta, and was inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers for her dedication to the YWCA and its mission in the community. As a member of the Atlanta Business League (ABL) since 2000, she has served as chair of the board of directors and is currently the board secretary. Griffin served for a decade as secretary of the United Sisterhood of Wheat Street Baptist Church, and as director of Vacation Bible School at Wheat Street, where she is a lifelong member. She previously served on the boards of Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC), Callanwolde Arts Center Foundation and the Hispanic Corporate Council of Atlanta, and she was a two-term president of NSAC Jack and Jill of America.

Named after the late H. Ted Olson, MAS, PPAI president emeritus, the award represents what Olson stood for—volunteerism inside and outside the promotional products industry. It is presented annually to PPAI members who have shown long-standing empathy, devotion and commitment to improving quality of life and bringing about change for the betterment of a community. Honorees exhibit exemplary devotion and volunteerism to nonprofit, civic, charitable and/or educational organizations committed to the needs of the communities they serve. Previous recipients of the award, which was first presented in 2012, are Margie Price, MAS; Harvey Mackler, MAS; Peter Geiger; Barbara Dail, MAS; Mark S. Gilman, CAS; and H. Wayne Roberts, MAS.