AIA Corporation (AIA), Appleton, Wis., announced that industry veteran Joél Bastien, MAS, has joined the company as senior vice president of owner success. In this role, Bastien will provide strategic direction and leadership to the AIA community to ensure exemplary customer experiences among AIA owners.
As the leader of AIA’s Owner Success team, Bastien is responsible for providing the company’s nearly 300 distributors with the resources needed to achieve their business, sales, marketing and global goals. Each distributor has a dedicated Success Manager who provides sales and business coaching, utilizing business intelligence data to identify smart revenue and gross margin goals.
Additionally, Bastien will oversee AIA events, such as the national sales meeting, regional sales meetings and training programs—working closely with the event team to provide ongoing opportunities for owners and their employees to learn and network with industry peers. Bastion will also be the liaison for the company’s Owner Advisory Council to ensure synergistic relationships between AIA and its owner community.
“We are thrilled to welcome Joél to the AIA community,” said Nancy Schmidt, CEO of AIA. “She’s a proven industry leader with a passion for business strategy and helping people achieve their personal and professional goals. I have no doubt Joél will build on the great work of our Owner Success team and provide fresh, innovative thinking around how to approach and succeed in today’s fast-changing marketplace.”
Bastien has 23 years of experience in the promotional products industry, holding a variety of administrative, sales and marketing positions. As a sales leader, Bastien continually helped her teams grow revenue by developing, supporting and coaching her team. She began her career as distributor with Arrow Uniform, where she advanced to vice president of direct sales and marketing during her 16 years with the company.
Bastion spent the last seven years with alphabroder, most recently serving as vice president of sales. She was also honored by PPAI as an Industry Best Boss in 2019.
Owner Success was previously led by Clay Hall, who also led business development. Now, as vice president of business development, Hal will focus exclusively on growing AIA’s owner community, working closely with Bastien to ensure both teams provide an exceptional owner experience from introduction to onboarding and beyond. Since May, Hall and his team have welcomed seven new owners to AIA.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working directly with AIA over the past seven years as a supplier partner, and I was excited about the opportunity to join this team because I admire the people, culture, values and strong reputation,” Bastien said. “AIA is all-in when it comes to positively supporting owner success, and I look forward to developing connections built on trust, sharing ideas and ultimately building on the strong foundation already established.”
For more information on AIA Corporation, visit www.aiacommunity.com.
