Welcome Aboard, Brad Brettschneider!

We are pleased to announce the hiring of Brad Brettschneider as Business Development Director (BDD). As a former Value-Added Reseller (VAR) partner for Hinda, Brad is no stranger to the industry or the company. His deep knowledge of recognition, rewards and incentives includes extensive experience selling Service Recognition Programs (HR), Sales Programs (Sales & Marketing) and Safety Improvement Programs (HR & Operations). 

Most recently, Brad served as Account and Territory Manager for 1157designconcepts in Sidney, OH, where he was responsible for sales development in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and managing 1,240 accounts. Prior to this, Brad was Recognition Consultant and Sales Director for Jostens Recognition Division/MTM Recognition in Minneapolis and then Founder and Sales Director for Corporate Recognition Consultants (CRC) in Birmingham, MI.

An experienced BDD, Brad has proven successful in B2B sales with notable accomplishments among Fortune 500 clients and a strong presence working with C-Level executives. He has experience selling and implementing point-based incentive programs, symbolic recognition programs and merchandise reward programs to consumers and companies with distributors/dealer networks and is accustomed to and comfortable selling large-scale programs of $1 million-plus requiring strategy, problem solving and persistence with long-term sales cycles.

Brad’s in-depth knowledge of distributors and channel markets has served to create broader sales, increased revenue and the vision to recognize opportunities and strategize to seize given opportunities for growth and increased profit. A combination of solid business acumen, dynamic interpersonal communication skills and knowing how to bring out individual strengths within a team has proven Brad as a leader in the industry.

“Brad’s experience in the industry and as a former Hinda Incentives VAR will bring insights and creative solution development skills that will help our VAR partners to be successful,” says Mike Donnelly, President of Hinda.

Brad earned his undergraduate degree at Arizona State University in Tempe, where he played baseball and was president of his fraternity. When not hard at work, he keeps busy as an umpire for the Suburban Umpire Association of Chicago and as a manager and player in his men’s baseball league.

"I'm looking forward to helping Hinda increase sales and revenue through its VAR partner network,” Brad says. “With my experience as a VAR who sold to Ford, General Motors and Beam Suntory, I'm certain I can help VARs deliver top-notch programs to their clients."

He adds, “Point-based merchandise programs are a terrific way to engage employees, raise sales and drive performance and I'm thrilled to represent a company that knows how to deliver outstanding measurable results." 

Welcome to the team, Brad!

Hinda Welcomes Gregg O'Neill to the Team!

We are pleased to announce the hiring of Gregg O’Neill as Business Development Director (BDD). In his most recent role as Vice President, Business Development at Brandmovers/Rewardian, Gregg was responsible for the growth of a major client’s consumer/employee platform business. Prior to that, he was in a similar role at Americas Points International, where he led business development efforts and expansion of Points loyalty currency management in the company’s major verticals, as well as opened expansion efforts into the financial sector.  

Gregg also spent 25 years at Maritz, where he held roles including Senior Account Manager, Field Sales Director and Business Development Director (Financial Sector). Some of his accomplishments during this tenure include leading the team effort that led to securing the largest loyalty contract in Maritz history, maintaining all business revenue in 2008 and 2009 during the financial market crisis and leading the project team that launched a major new airline credit card loyalty program which grew to 20,000,000 members over two years. Additionally, Gregg was the recipient of the Maritz Masters Award 18 times and won Account Executive of the Year twice.  

"Gregg is a true industry expert and professional,” says Mike Donnelly, President of Hinda Incentives. “His experience supports our Value Chain approach and his ability to create best-in-industry solutions for his clients makes him a trusted and valued partner."  

Gregg earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. He currently resides in Metuchen, NJ. Gregg has been married to Ellen for 36 years and they have four children – Drew, Mark, Cara and Ryan. When not busy with work, Gregg is an avid sports fan and enjoys basketball, baseball and golf. He also loves theater, good restaurants, cooking, wine and travel – he’s been to over 20 countries around the world! 

“I have been involved with rewards for the past 30 years of my career, in both the consumer and employee space,” says Gregg. “The power of incentives is incredibly tangible and beneficial in driving real business results when delivered by the right partner. I am most impressed with Hinda's reputation and its forward vision as it continues to bring change and innovation to the market and its customers.”

Welcome to the Hinda team, Gregg!

Hinda Incentives Announces Closing of Its Acquisition of Universal Rewards Exchange

Hinda Incentives has announced that it has closed its acquisition of the Universal Rewards Exchange (URE) from Engagement Technology (ET) LLC, a division of Engagement Enterprises. The URE will become a division of Hinda and its current management team, including Vice President of Sales Jim Kilmetis and Andrea Lightman, will lead the new Hinda division, and will report to Mike Donnelly, President of Hinda Incentives.

“Hinda is excited about the early reaction to the news of this acquisition, says Donnelly. “While Hinda’s customer’s enjoy a full-service solution to their rewards and recognition programs that enables them to focus primarily on selling or on their other core businesses, the URE provides a unique, transparent marketplace for the incentive, recognition and other types of do-it-yourself solution providers who seek to have their own relationships with vendors, or who wish to utilize their own catalogs or front-end program management technologies. We are excited to be in the role of helping bring this invaluable industry marketplace to the next level to address the do-it-yourself solution providers who might not have considered Hinda in the past. We look forward to working with all of the wholesale suppliers in the URE marketplace to produce more volume for all and to improve industry efficiencies.”

Hinda will immediately add to its Value Chain Network strategy the technology and marketing services of the URE’s parent company, Engagement Enterprises. These include the Solata Engagement Express and Portal program management technologies and the Engagement Agency licensee program, both of which are designed specifically for marketing, HR, recognition and other solution providers seeking to help clients achieve specific goals by integrating all of the traditional levers of engagement. The program management technology is specifically built to support the engagement framework created by EE’s Enterprise Engagement Alliance Curriculum Development Program and to help solution providers and their clients profit from engagement.

The acquisition and marketing agreement demonstrates the commitment of both companies to helping incentive, recognition, loyalty and other engagement solution providers maximize their business opportunities by having access to the most complete suite of technologies and methodologies to help their clients of all sizes achieve the most measurable results.

Jim Kilmetis, a co-founder of the Universal Rewards Exchange, will join Hinda as Vice President of Sales. “My goal has always been to help the solution providers and vendors in this marketplace expand their businesses and enhance their customer relationships by providing the tools and support they need,” says Kilmetis. “The sale of the URE to Hinda helps not only the solution providers by providing them with even a broader range of services and support, but also the leading rewards suppliers who participate in the URE by expanding the potential marketplace for the benefit of all.”

The Universal Rewards Exchange, launched by Engagement Technology in 2010, is a virtual marketplace of rewards consisting of over 70 vendors and growing. It offers solution providers a choice between receiving real-time reward feeds or utilizing customized catalogs and a highly automated redemption system powered by a virtual logistics platform that serves up millions of merchandise, gift card, travel and digital rewards on a real-time basis. The URE is ideally suited for solution providers seeking a do-it-yourself, highly transparent pricing model and direct connections with suppliers.

The URE will now be able to offer its customers Hinda’s complete suite of full-service, customer service, award customization, pricing advantages and personalization services as needed for maximum program engagement. In turn, Hinda’s solution provider network will benefit from a new catalog platform for those who wish to manage award administration on their own, as well as a suite of front-end program management technologies to better measure the ROI of traditional incentive, recognition and loyalty programs.

Merchandise Monday: Trade Show Photo Bonanza!

During the past couple of weeks, the Hinda merchandise team hit the trade show floors at the International CES and PPAI Expo and they reported back with some pretty cool new stuff! For this week’s Merchandise Monday column, we thought we’d let the items speak for themselves.

The PPAI Expo was just last week – January 11-15 in Las Vegas.

Bugatti bags held all the swag given out at this year’s Golden Globes®!

Collegiate products from Dooney & Bourke

New bags for ladies (as well as backpacks) from Victorinox

An assortment of watches at the Wenger® booth

A sweet take on the Batmobile! (Disclaimer: this probably won’t be available in Hinda’s assortment.)

CES was also in Vegas on January 6-9. Be sure to check out our previous post from CES, as well!

Wall-mountable fireplaces from Bell’O®

Fitbit®’s array of fitness tracking devices and…

… Tory Burch for Fitbit 

Intel® RealSense™ Technology puts you in control – without the need for controllers!

Lenses galore at Nikon

The Parrot® Pot waters your plants so you don’t have to remember.

Trying out Samsung®’s Oculus virtual reality headset

Be sure to check out our Facebook page for even more photos from the show floor. As always, we won’t know which of these products we’ll be adding to our assortment for some time, so stay tuned to Hinda Blog for updates on these and other great new items in our continuously expanding awards collection!

Hinda Incentives Announces Acquisition of Universal Rewards Exchange

Two Companies Focused on Supporting Incentive, Recognition, Loyalty

and Engagement Solution Providers Join Forces to Expand the Marketplace

Hinda Incentives has announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire the Universal Rewards Exchange (URE) from Engagement Technology (ET) LLC, as well as a co-marketing agreement with ET’s parent company, Engagement Enterprises LLC, to support incentive, recognition, loyalty and other engagement solution providers with a full suite of state-of-the-art solutions to offer clients of all sizes. The URE will become a division of Hinda and its current management team, including Vice President of Sales Jim Kilmetis and Andrea Lightman, will lead the new Hinda division.

The URE will now be able to offer its customers Hinda’s complete suite of full-service, customer service, award customization, pricing advantages and personalization services as needed for maximum program engagement. In turn, Hinda’s solution provider network will benefit from a new catalog platform for those who wish to manage award administration on their own, as well as a suite of front-end program management technologies to better measure the ROI of traditional incentive, recognition and loyalty programs.

Jim Kilmetis, a co-founder of the Universal Rewards Exchange, will join Hinda full time to head up sales, both for the URE and for Hinda’s full-service solution and other offerings. Says Hinda President Mike Donnelly:  “Few people in the industry better understand the needs of our solution provider partners than Jim; he is dedicated to helping the industry grow, and understands all of the ways rewards, technology and well-designed programs provided by the companies in our value chain network can become a critical part of the success of our partners and their clients.”

As part of the co-marketing agreement, Hinda will immediately add to its value chain network strategy the technology and marketing services of the URE’s parent company, Engagement Enterprises.  These include the Solata Engagement Express and Portal program management technologies and the Engagement Agency licensee program, both of which are designed specifically for marketing, HR, recognition and other solution providers seeking to help clients achieve specific goals by integrating all of the traditional levers of engagement. The technology is built to support the Engagement framework created by EE’s Enterprise Engagement Alliance curriculum development program.

For a complete article on the acquisition, click here.

Mike Donnelly Promoted to President of Hinda

Hinda is excited to announce the promotion of Mike Donnelly to the position of President.  Formerly Executive Vice President/General Manager of Hinda, Donnelly’s promotion provides expanded leadership responsibilities covering all aspects of the business, including sales, marketing, product development, strategic direction, quality, operations, technology and program administration along with leading the efforts in helping Hinda’s partners and clients to achieve their goals with well developed and managed programs.

“I am incredibly proud to be leading the Hinda Incentives team, and I am excited about our future. We have an aggressive and value-based model that will continue to position us not only as a leader in the incentive/loyalty/engagement industry, but will ensure that we continue to realize joint success with our partners,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly joined Hinda Incentives in March 2014 after serving as a consultant for the company.  His career includes over 30 years in the marketing services and incentive and loyalty business. Prior roles include executive management and leadership positions with Donnelly Creative Partners, Maritz Rewards’ Motivation & Loyalty business units, and with InteliSpend, formerly American Express Incentive Services.