As company President Derek is tasked with general oversight and management of day to day operations within the San Mateo sales office, including working closely with our sales, graphic design and customer service departments. Derek oversees all marketing efforts, and directly manages our Mazatlan, Mexico based team members who are tasked primarily with web development, website product management and various online marketing functions.

Derek personally selects many of the company’s core products and product lines, and handles vendor relations almost exclusively on behalf of the company. He is known to have a keen eye for quality, both in terms of a products look and feel and also the various embellishment methods we apply to them.

One of his most important responsibilities includes collaborating with our domestic and overseas suppliers to help ensure our standards of excellence are met, if not exceeded, throughout the supply chain.

Derek continues to manage a fair volume of projects for a select group of early clients, and when necessary, assists the sales team with inbound RFQ’s/RFI’s. Derek leads the advanced artwork review and assessment process for complex or otherwise intricate client designs that require close and careful review or modification, and he oversees design functions in general.

Since the company’s inception in 2009, Derek has honed or developed considerable skills in sales/sales process, project management, business risk management and mitigation, graphic design, web design and also marketing; both new age and traditional. Almost entirely thru first hand trial and error during the first several years in business, Derek developed many of the company’s order processing and production processes, safeguards as well as various checks and balances - many of which have helped the company achieve an unmatched industry record for on-time delivery and customer satisfaction. Such measures and processes have also helped the company to minimize claims related to order entry or production errors. This gives the company a significant competitive edge and ultimately saves each of our customer's time and money.

Derek is currently working to develop and improve various professional skill sets including sales management, advanced graphic design, staff oversight, management & motivation, and general accounting principles.

Derek was born in Burlingame, California and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Derek attended Burlingame High School and went onto briefly study business and Construction Management at California State University, Chico. Prior to co-founding the company Derek worked as an Account Manager for PDM Steel Service Centers in Santa Clara, California. As a teenager and into his early adult life he worked for a business owned by his Father Richard, Buzz Haskins Equipment Co., Inc., a South San Francisco based mid-sized earth moving contractor. There he learned a number of core competencies related to business and project management - many of which are either referenced or applied directly on a daily basis in present time.

Derek’s interests are spending time with his family, business, cooking, travel and fitness. In his spare time he likes to play basketball, read a variety of business-related subject matter, exercise and play golf.

Justin McGovern co-founded the company together with Derek Haskins in early 2009 after having worked at Santa Clara based PDM Steel Service Centers - a subsidiary of publicly traded Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. - as an Account Manager.

Justin’s current role within the company involves working closely with Derek to discuss, develop and implement short-term and long-term strategic vision and goals for the company.

Justin provides valuable insight and feedback for certain day to day business decisions and regularly provides advice taking into account his vast experience working separately for various technology companies throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Justin has been instrumental in helping to develop our sales team, and consults closely with Derek on all hiring decisions.

In addition to his role at the company he co-founded, Justin currently works for DataStax, a database technology company based in Santa Clara, California.

Justin was born in San Francisco and grew up in South San Francisco, California where his family has considerable roots. He attended Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo as well as Burlingame High School. After high school, Justin attended college in San Diego, California.

Outside of work Justin is interested in home automation technology, baseball, basketball and Golf.

ELITE PROMO INC, a leading Promotional Product Distribution Company located in San Mateo, California is looking to hire an experienced promotional product Account Executive. If you are a person with promotional product sales experience and knowledge, a high level of character, passionate about sales, communicates well, has a professional demeanor and appearance and isn’t scared of prospecting we want to hear from you! The successful candidate will be a part of a growing small business, and will be rewarded appropriately for their success.

Position: Account Executive

Location: San Mateo, California

Industry: Promotional Products/Print/Marketing

Job Type: B2B Sales

Experience Required:

Min. 3 years B2B sales experience, preferably in the promotional product industry or similar trade.

Education Required:

Bachelor’s Degree preferred, Associate’s degree with good combination of experience acceptable

Other Requirements:

Knowledge of production processes and supply chains preferred. Experience selling promotional products, custom logo apparel etc. Proficiency with computers and software, particularly MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point) and if possible Adobe Graphic Design Software (not required). Professional demeanor, superior communication skills and strong problem solving skills. Solid attention to detail.

Summary:

The person who obtains this position will be tasked with the single most important job in the company – selling our unmatched selection of quality custom logo merchandise, apparel and more to various businesses throughout the United States. Our single point of contact model means our Account Executives are accountable for their orders throughout the entire intake and quoting process thru to successful delivery.

Status:

Full time, at will non-exempt employee.

Schedule:

Mon-Fri, 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. PST

How to Apply:

Please submit your resume via email to careers@reachelitepromo.com. Please include in the body of your email a summary of why you’re interested in joining our team and how you feel you would fit in, and effectively sell our products. Candidates are strongly encouraged to visit our website to gain an understanding of our business, products and value-proposition.

Dustin Barnett joined the company in February 2015 as an Account Executive. Dustin was born in Templeton, California where he attended high school. He went on to attend college at Cuesta College and Fresno State University, where he obtained an Associate’s Degree.

Prior to joining the company Dustin worked as a Fire fighter and Paramedic, which had been a personal goal of his since high school. He was driven in his career as a fire fighter by many of the same things that drive his career and related success as an Account Executive here at ELITE: a genuine desire to help people.

Having originally joined the company with relatively limited industry knowledge and experience, Dustin learned quickly and as a result of his true dedication to client service and unrelenting nature, he almost immediately began to experience great success with a number of substantial and important projects for the company.

A true competitor who enjoys problem-solving and project management, Dustin possesses a keen attention to detail and thoroughly enjoys pleasing his clients thru his daily work – something which he has been tremendously successful in doing.

Dustin resides in Hills borough, California with his girlfriend Heather, who is a local wedding & event planner. In his spare time he enjoys exploring new things, travelling, spending time with his girlfriend and his dog as well as enjoying a wide variety of food and libations.

Gina Thornton joined the company in November 2015 as a Customer Service Representative and Sales Assistant. Gina came to us with ten years of experience in the promotional product industry, having worked for a mid-sized promotional product distributor in Maryland for as many years. She has considerable experience not only with the traditional distributor model, but also with managing company stores and fulfillment.

Gina’s work at the company mostly involves making sure that each and every order goes smoothly from the initial intake phase, thru to quoting, order entry, art review and prep, production, timely shipping and, almost always, on time delivery.

As a result of her ability to multi-task together with her keen attention to detail and listening skills Gina has quickly become an integral part of the day to day work flow and takes a tremendous amount of pride in her work. One of the things she enjoys most about working here is the relaxed boutique style work environment, and the truly unique level of synergy among the office staff. What she enjoys most about her work itself is being able to be a part of something that is going to make someone feel good – whether it’s a high-end custom logo jacket given to employees in recognition of good performance or a more basic trade-show give away, the fact is, when people receive a promotional item it usually elicits a positive response. This is what makes Gina tick, professionally speaking.

Gina is also a proud mother of two. She resides in San Bruno, California with her family, and mostly enjoys spending time with her kids in her spare time. When she’s not either making people feel good by helping to produce some of the most amazing and eye-catching promotional gifts & incentives or spending time with her beloved children, she enjoys shopping, taking road trips and furniture restoration.

Gina Thornton joined the company in November 2015 as a Customer Service Representative and Sales Assistant. Gina came to us with ten years of experience in the promotional product industry, having worked for a mid-sized promotional product distributor in Maryland for as many years. She has considerable experience not only with the traditional distributor model, but also with managing company stores and fulfillment.

Gina’s work at the company mostly involves making sure that each and every order goes smoothly from the initial intake phase, thru to quoting, order entry, art review and prep, production, timely shipping and, almost always, on time delivery.

As a result of her ability to multi-task together with her keen attention to detail and listening skills Gina has quickly become an integral part of the day to day work flow and takes a tremendous amount of pride in her work. One of the things she enjoys most about working here is the relaxed boutique style work environment, and the truly unique level of synergy among the office staff. What she enjoys most about her work itself is being able to be a part of something that is going to make someone feel good – whether it’s a high-end custom logo jacket given to employees in recognition of good performance or a more basic trade-show give away, the fact is, when people receive a promotional item it usually elicits a positive response. This is what makes Gina tick, professionally speaking.

Gina is also a proud mother of two. She resides in San Bruno, California with her family, and mostly enjoys spending time with her kids in her spare time. When she’s not either making people feel good by helping to produce some of the most amazing and eye-catching promotional gifts & incentives or spending time with her beloved children, she enjoys shopping, taking road trips and furniture restoration.

Karla Nevarez works for the company as a Website Product Manager. Based in our Mazatlan, Mexico office, her work involves adding, updating and managing products on the company website on a full-time basis. Karla is also in charge of the company’s on-line paid search campaigns, and has become well-versed in Google Ad-words and also Search Engine Optimization in general.

Karla has been instrumental in helping create a better website with an unmatched product selection. This has directly benefited not only the company but most importantly our valued customers. She’s a true whiz when it comes to adding products not only quickly but together with great attention to detail to help ensure all published information and imagery is accurate. Karla is a good problem solver, which has been evident in her ability to find various solutions that allow her to work more efficiently without compromising the quality of her work.

Prior to joining our team Karla worked for a company in Mexico which specialized in billing and invoicing for a variety of industries. Her role there was training individuals to learn the software. She was born in Ensenada, Mexico and grew up in Mazatlan, Mexico where she currently resides with her family. Karla attended high school in Mazatlan, and went on to attend college at ITESUS University, where she studied criminalistics.

Karla takes a tremendous amount of pride in her work, and mostly enjoys being a part of a small professional team where her work truly makes a difference. Her work at the company has been rewarding in that it has allowed her to learn a number of new skills, while improving her English which is an ongoing professional development goal for her.

In her spare time Karla mostly enjoys spending time with her friends and family. She also enjoys playing video games and reading.

Roberto Lopez joined the team in 2014 as a Website Product Manager. Roberto is based in our Mazatlan, Mexico office and is tasked primarily with adding, updating and managing products on the company website. With Roberto’s professional assistance, we have been able to grow the company website from approximately two-thousand products to nearly seven-thousand, and Roberto works diligently on a daily full-time basis to continue to help develop our website into a world-class business-to-business e-commerce platform, where clients can conveniently view accurate product information, high quality imagery from various angles in multiple colours, and technical specifications as well as imprint methods and locations.

Roberto was born in Mazatlan, Mexico and grew up in both Mazatlan and Hermosillo, Mexico. He attended high school at Instituto Cultural de Occident and attended college at Universidad de Guadalajara Virtual. Prior to beginning his career with ELITE, Roberto worked for a local entertainment facility where he was in charge of accounting related functions and general administrative oversight.

Roberto enjoys his work at ELITE mostly because it has allowed him to learn new skills, improve upon skills learned previously and because his work helps contribute to the success of not only a small business but to the success of his fellow colleagues.

In his spare time Roberto enjoys fitness including gym training and cycling, and also enjoys playing video games.

Carlos Batista joined EPI with 10 years of account management experience and a great deal of knowledge in project administration and customer service. Carlos dedicates himself to providing the best experience for clients and building long-term business relationships.

Many of his core values and work ethic stem from his career in the military, a life-long dream of his. Immediately after graduating from Burlingame High School, Carlos enlisted in the military as an infantry rifleman in the United States Marine Corps from December 2003 to December 2007. He served two tours in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After his military commitment ended, he was honorably discharged and moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Carlos truly enjoys working as team and being able to oversee a variety of projects from start to finish, including assisting clients with tailored proposals; thru to design conceptualization and eventually onto successful and timely delivery.

Outside of the office, Carlos especially enjoys spending time with his wife and three children. Having them join him on outdoor adventures, like camping and snowboarding truly puts a smile on his face. He also enjoys playing basketball, mountain biking and attending sporting events.

Amy Li joined our team in January 2017 as our Office & Accounting Manager. Amy was born in Xi’an, China where she lived during her formative years. Xi’an is one of the oldest cities in China and is famous as the home to the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

After attending High School in Xi’an Amy moved with her family to the United States, where she studied marketing at San Francisco State University. While she missed home and the amazing food in Xi’an she quickly adapted to life in the United States and excelled in her studies, having graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Prior to coming to work at EPI Amy worked for Struxtur, Inc. where she was mostly in charge of Accounting and Bookkeeping in a role similar to her work at EPI. Amy is an extremely efficient and detail oriented Accounting Professional and takes tremendous pride in her work. Her responsibilities within the company include accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, managing payments, client invoicing and general office administration. She is the friendly voice who answers the phone as well!

Amy enjoys working at EPI because she enjoys the friendly almost family-like environment within our office. She is constantly observing and suggesting ways to improve office operations and client service and has quickly become a key team member.

Outside of work Amy enjoys hiking, traveling and watching movies. She also enjoys playing League of Legends.

Josh Bradley is at the helm of EPI’s marketing and client outreach efforts. Beginning his career in public relations and media communications, jOSH worked on campaigns for nationally-recognized brands in the food and consumer products industries, before specializing in entertainment marketing in the early 2000's.

Moving back to his hometown of San Jose in 2008, Josh worked for several years in the tech industry for a philanthropic start-up that taught people basic and essential internet skills geared toward job search strategies. From there he shifted gears slightly, garnering extensive marketing and account management experience in the gift card industry, managing dozens of brands and distribution outlets across the country.

At EPI, Josh is thrilled to be working in such an exciting and ever-changing industry and for a company that values people as much as products. Leading the company’s marketing and outreach efforts, Josh is looking forward to EPI’s continued growth and success as one the leading promotional companies specializing in high-end products and luxury apparel.

Josh is an avid musician and music junkie, frequently writing, recording, and releasing new material. A life-long San Francisco Giants fan, he also took his love of baseball to the diamond thru umpiring high school and youth baseball. When not doing either one of those activities, Josh is likely spending quality time cooking, hiking, script writing, playing video games, or just goofing off with his two children.

Zoey Shaw is part of the business development team at EPI, enabling her to utilize previous marketing experience and become an integral part of a strong company in a growing industry.

Actively creating opportunities to develop relationships with potential clients, Shaw consistently keeps a keen eye on market trends, speaking skills, and the latest promotional products and services EPI has to offer. Often on the phone or in meetings with prospective clients, she quickly became gratified with her role at EPI and looks forward to watching the company continue to grow.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in the heart of San Francisco, Zoey earned a business management degree with an emphasis in marketing, all while working in local theater and event planning productions across the Bay Area.

When not in the office, Zoey enjoys writing poetry, exercising, cooking, attending fundraiser and community events, and playing with her dog, Snoopy. She also joyfully spends time with her five siblings and family, and can often be found planning their holiday events and parties.