IWLA Names Strother Membership, Marketing & Business Development Director

April 26, 2011 (Des Plaines, IL) – The International Warehouse Logistics Association recently named Jay Strother to the newly created position of director of membership, marketing and business development. In his new position, Mr. Strother is responsible for developing and implementing IWLA's marketing, communications and sales activities. His duties include market research, honing IWLA's brand, member-recruitment and retention strategies, and optimizing the organization's partnership with the third-party logistics vendor community. He will also oversee the association's marketing and membership staff. Jay Strother brings just the right skill set and experience to strengthen our marketing and membership activities, said Joel D. Anderson, IWLA president and CEO. He will be able to improve our membership outreach and sharpen the focus of how we convey IWLA's value proposition regarding educational and other services to our members and prospective members in the commercial warehouse third-party logistics industry.

Mr. Strother has more than two decades' experience leading marketing and communications for professional organizations and trade associations, most recently as a publications, sales and marketing consultant. Early in his career, as director of publications for the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce, he spearheaded editorial and sales of the 250,000-circulation Jaycees Magazine. He also oversaw the organization's public relations, multimedia production and event marketing for national meetings. His more than 12 years at the Association of Legal Administrators included many communications and marketing tasks, including member training, sales management, vendor relations, website content creation, e-newsletter generation, journal editing, and book writing, editing and publishing.

The ALA target audience was law firm business managers in the United States and Canada. For five years after leaving ALA, Mr. Strother worked with nearly three dozen trade and professional associations as a senior manager and group publisher at the management company SmithBucklin. Among his clients were the National Paper Trade Association, National Fastener Distributors Association, Wallcoverings Association and Decorative Plumbing and Hardware Association. An honors graduate from the University of Tulsa, he is a member of Association Media and Publishing (formerly SNAP). Mr. Strother serves in many volunteer capacities, including as a Boy Scout troop leader and as a board member of the Friends of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington Heights, Ill.