EVOLVE SUMMIT

Senior Economist with Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy. His areas of focus include business taxes, cross-border taxes, and macroeconomics.

In addition to work at Tax Foundation, Alan Cole has served on the Joint Economic Committee and with The Conference Board, and published on a variety of economic topics. Alan has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University and an MBA majoring in finance and public policy from the Wharton School. Alan lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.

Andy Arkin is a Regional Sales Manager at Zund America, bringing more than 35 years of experience in the printing and finishing industry. A specialist in digital textile printing, processes, and cutting, Andy partners with companies to deliver expert guidance and customized solutions that maximize value, minimize waste, reduce labor costs, and enhance productivity and quality. Passionate about helping customers achieve their goals, he’s dedicated to supporting business growth through Zund America’s innovative, cutting-edge products and services.

Augustine “Auggie” Tantillo is President of SRG & Associates, a federal government affairs and consulting firm specializing in trade, textile, apparel, and industrial fabrics policy. He also serves as a senior advisor to the United States Industrial & Narrow Fabrics Institute (USINFI), guiding domestic manufacturers on federal trade and regulatory matters.

Previously, Auggie was President & CEO of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Textiles, Apparel & Consumer Goods at the U.S. Department of Commerce under President George H. W. Bush.

A recognized authority on trade policy, tariffs, and textile advocacy, he is known for translating complex trade rules into practical business strategies and shaping key industry positions in Washington.

Tantillo has appeared in the U.S. Fashion Industry Association’s documentary on global trade and frequently delivers policy briefings such as “Washington Update Outlook 2025,” offering insight into shifts in tariff policy, customs strategy, and trade enforcement. During his tenure at NCTO, he was instrumental in advancing measures to protect domestic textile innovation and competitiveness.

Cassie Green is the Content Director for Apparelist, responsible for writing, editing, recording, and curating content on the website as well as the brand’s other media platforms. She also helps curate educational content for PRINTING United Alliance events, including Apparel Decoration Summit and PRINTING United Expo. Cassie has over 12 years of experience covering the apparel decorating industry. In her free time, she enjoys outdoor sports and being a mom of boys.

We partner with enterprise direct mail leaders ($50M+) who refuse to watch digital agencies capture their clients' marketing budgets. These leaders recognize that the future belongs to those who can combine mail's proven performance with digital's realtime capabilities.

Through MindFire's intelligence platform, our enterprise partners are expanding beyond traditional mail programs to capture new revenue streams from existing clients. With over 642 million marketing events processed annually, we're helping direct mail leaders transform their operations into modern marketing powerhouses.

A C-Suit transformational leader, driving growth and innovation. I thrive at the intersection of strategy, technology and leadership, creating high-performing organizations that are future-ready, customer-centric, and result oriented.

My leadership philosophy: people first, strategy second, results follow. I believe in combing empathy, clarity, and purpose to accelerate growth, inspire teams, and make organizations trusted partners in their industries.

Founder / CEO, Fulfill Engine

Jayson is the CEO of Fulfill Engine, a leading workflow automation platform built for the decorated apparel, print, and fulfillment ecosystem. He’s spent years facilitating implementations of order routing, rule engines, QR/label tracking, exception handling, and integrated shipping — not just as a software vendor, but as a strategic partner.

As moderator, Jayson will guide the conversation, tie real-world stories back to technical principles, and help extract lessons for the audience: what to ask, what to demand, and how to work with workflow architects (internal or external).

President and CCO, Monster Digital

Jaymes leads the commercial strategy at Monster Digital, a powerhouse in digital / on-demand apparel printing. As a long-time veteran of the apparel printing world (and an early adopter of digital transition), has played a central role in implementing workflow systems. At Monster their home-grown, proprietary workflow engine has impacted every step of an order — tailoring every step from order intake to routing, tracking, and SLA enforcement.

Under Jaymes’s leadership, Monster hasn’t just chased scale — they engineer the machinery behind it, enabling them to juggle thousands of micro-orders with consistency, speed, and control. His hands-on view of that build process and lessons learned (what worked, what didn’t, what they wished they’d known) makes his perspective rare: you’ll get war stories, not theory.

He’s uniquely qualified to speak to both sides: what brands demanded, how the system responded, and how a decorator can use proprietary tech to raise the bar.

I am the Product Trainer for SanMar. I travel the country to meet with and train SanMar customers, sharing my extensive knowledge and industry experience. My goal is give our customers the tools necessary to find the right products for their customers while learning more about the Promotional Products industry and what/how fashion trends affect our Product designs. I also train SanMar's 400+ inside and outside sales reps on our full portfolio of apparel, bags, caps and accessories. I present in- person, online in Webinars, via Training videos and live (recorded for future views) Webcasts.

Julie Johnson is Key Account Manager for Print-on-Demand at Stanley/Stella, bringing over 25 years of apparel and textile industry experience to her role. She specializes in guiding brands through material selection, print compatibility, and sustainable design strategies to get the best performance from different cottons and substrates.

With a foundation in textile and design education and deep experience across supply chain, wholesale, and printing operations, Julie is uniquely positioned to speak on the technical and commercial nuances of cotton in on-demand printing.

Her session will explore how fiber origin, yarn construction, finish treatments, and fabric structure all influence print fidelity, durability, hand feel, and color brightness. Drawing on Stanley/Stella’s innovation-led approach to textile development—where garments are engineered for decoration and sustainability—Julie will help attendees make more informed decisions when selecting cotton for print-on-demand applications.

Julia K. Hughes is President of the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA), which represents brands, retailers, importers, and wholesalers based in the United States and doing business globally. She represents the industry in front of the U.S. government as well as international governments and stakeholders, explaining how fashion companies create high quality jobs in the United States and economic opportunities around the world.

An expert on textile and apparel trade issues, Julie has testified before Congress and the Executive Branch. She frequently speaks at international conferences including the China & Asia Textile Forum, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Harvard University’s Bangladesh Development Conference, MAGIC, Prime Source Forum, Vietnam Textile Summit, and others.

Julie served as the first President and is one of the founders of the Washington Chapter of Women in International Trade (WIIT) and is one of the founders of the WIIT Charitable Trust. She also was the first President of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT). In 1992, she received the Outstanding Woman in International Trade award and in 2008, the WIIT Lifetime Achievement Award. She also is a member of the International Women’s Forum.

She has an M.A. in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Kevin is the President of Sales Ink, a sales coaching and CRM provider for the print industry. He has 20+ years of sales leadership experience in entrepreneurial companies and has helped hundreds of apparel decorators of all sizes to improve sales and drive more revenue to their business. He holds an advisor role at multiple growth companies and has managed sales teams of over 70 while scaling revenues to $100M+.

As President of Gooten, Maddy Alcala leads one of the most influential platforms powering the future of on-demand production and fulfillment. Under her leadership, Gooten has scaled from an emerging technology startup to a global enterprise partner supporting some of the world’s fastest-growing brands and print providers.

With a background in corporate strategy at BlackRock, Maddy brings a unique combination of financial rigor and operational insight to the fast-moving world of print-on-demand. She is passionate about transforming how brands think about inventory, fulfillment, and sustainability — enabling businesses to profitably shift from mass production to on-demand, data-driven manufacturing.

A graduate of Colgate University with a degree in Economics, Maddy is recognized across the industry for her leadership in connecting technology, creativity, and commerce to build more agile, sustainable supply chains.

Moran Levy, Director of Business Segments,
Kornit Digital

Moran Levy Finklshtein has been with Kornit Digital for the past three years, leading the Mass Production segment and driving the integration of Kornit’s industrial solutions into high-volume manufacturing environments. With a strong background in developing multidisciplinary systems, production floor management, and continuous improvement, she specializes in bridging the gap between traditional analog processes and advanced digital technologies

Nick Chope is an automation and manufacturing engineering leader with deep experience designing and scaling advanced production systems across industries. As Chief Engineer and Head of Manufacturing at CreateMe, he leads the development of next-generation apparel manufacturing technologies that merge automation, robotics, and digital workflows to enable localized, sustainable production.

Before joining CreateMe, Nick held leadership and engineering roles at companies including Apple, Microsoft, Boston Scientific, and Tegra, where he helped pioneer automation in industries ranging from medical devices to large-format displays and apparel. He holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Partner, New Direction Partners

Peter Schaefer is a seasoned investment banker and valuation expert with over 30 years of experience guiding business owners through growth, exit strategy, and mergers & acquisitions

As a Partner at New Direction Partners, a boutique investment banking firm exclusively serving the print and packaging sector, Peter has led and advised on more than 100 transactions across the industry — from small strategic add-ons to large-scale divestitures. He has also performed hundreds of valuations for ESOPs, estate & gift tax planning, and strategic planning engagements.

Peter’s deep domain expertise, track record in complex transactions, and passion for helping owners create maximum value make him a trusted voice for business leaders seeking to prepare their companies for sale or strategic partnership.

Co-Founder & Co-Owner, USColorworks

Rodney is the co-founder of USColorworks, one of the most advanced, scalable apparel decoration operations in the U.S. In day-to-day leadership, he’s driven the integration of performance, process, and automation — marrying print, embroidery, and fulfillment under one roof.

His shop already handled tens of thousands of garments daily (20,000–25,000 garments) and saw the challenge when trying to add print-on-demand volume. They discovered and adopted Fulfill Engine and Shopworks to automate order flow so that each order is processed reliably “the same way every time.” USColorworks

Rodney’s perspective is grounded in operational transformation. He’s not a vendor or theorist — he’s a peer who took the leap when print micro-orders threatened to overwhelm his shop. His stories about root-cause fixes, process repeatability, and safeguards against chaos will resonate deeply with decorators and brands alike.

Rolando Martinez is a global business leader with extensive experience driving growth, digital innovation, and operational excellence across the printing and technology industries. As Director of GTM Category, Products and Training at Kornit Digital, and formerly a senior leader at HP, he has led global teams in product management, market development, and strategic planning. Known for his growth mindset and collaborative leadership, Rolando excels at turning customer insights into impactful strategies and building high-performing teams that deliver results.

CEO, Kornit Digital

As CEO of Kornit Digital since 2018, Ronen Samuel is leading the charge in transforming the textile and apparel industry with digital, on-demand production. With over 25 years of experience in global business leadership, he brings a relentless passion for innovation, market disruption, and customer success.

Before joining Kornit, Ronen spent nearly two decades at HP, where he played a pivotal role in scaling the Indigo business from a startup to an industry powerhouse. From driving strategic growth in EMEA to accelerating adoption in Asia-Pacific, he built and expanded markets by redefining how businesses approach digital print.

A dynamic and hands-on leader, Ronen excels at identifying new business models, unlocking market opportunities, and building high-performing teams. His vision for Kornit is clear: to empower brands, designers, and producers with the agility, efficiency, and sustainability needed to win in today’s fast-changing world.

A highly experienced and results-oriented professional with over 45 years of expertise in the decorated apparel industry. I have a proven track record of success, from building and managing a successful family business to leading large-scale screen-printing operations and now driving technical support and customer liaison efforts at ShopWorks. My passion lies in optimizing processes, fostering team growth, and ensuring customer satisfaction. I bring a deep understanding of the industry, from hands-on production to cutting-edge software solutions. I'm committed to leveraging my knowledge and experience to contribute to the continued advancement of the decorated apparel.

A recognized thought leader in Print-on-Demand, Rusty is passionate about helping businesses navigate and dominate the fast-evolving world of POD. With over 20 years of executive experience spanning print fulfillment, promotions, and global partnerships, he specializes in driving scalable growth using strategic insights, innovative solutions, and high-impact collaborations. Beyond strategy, Rusty is also a vocal champion for the Print-On-Demand industry, frequently speaking at events, podcasts, and championing its future through thought leadership and industry engagement.

As CEO and CISO of Pillar Technology Partners, I help organizations move faster, smarter, and more securely by uniting AI, data, and cybersecurity.

From the beginning, Pillar has taken a data-first approach to security. That foundation has naturally expanded into AI—where protecting data and unlocking its value must go hand in hand. Today, we call this Secure Data Innovation: empowering leaders to adopt AI responsibly, optimize their data ecosystems, and safeguard mission-critical assets with enterprise-grade protection.

My focus is simple: ensure that innovation and security work together to drive measurable business outcomes. I connect strategy to execution so executives can move forward with clarity, confidence, and resilience.

In a world where technology and threats evolve daily, I believe the advantage belongs to those who stay nimble, always-learning, and secure by design. That’s the vision we deliver at Pillar.

At Blue Wheel, Trevor led the digital marketing & advertising agency to become one of Inc 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies in 2019 & 2020. In 2020, Trevor helped lead the engineering team, design, and launch of the agency's proprietary Amazon Ad tech, Companion, helping the company become 1 of 18 of the most important tech companies in the marketplace industry, as named by Business Insider.

Trevor has also led the growth of Trevco, a top 150 global licensee, to amass the largest roster list of licensed brands (over 1500 and counting). Trevor pivoted the company in 2016 to be direct-to-consumer-first and helped guided Trevco to become one of the largest sellers on Amazon in the U.S. During the pandemic, Trevor launched MaskClub.com from concept to live in 4 days, quickly becoming the world’s largest licensed face mask destination. Trevor was named one of 40 Under 40 Influential People by License Global.