BAMKO is thrilled to announce the appointment of David Harney as Executive Vice President of Marketing. David joins the executive team after four years as Vice President of B2B Strategy at Monks, bringing a proven track record in enterprise brand positioning, digital transformation, and cross-channel growth.
As BAMKO continues its rapid expansion across global markets, creating a dedicated executive marketing role marks a pivotal milestone in the company’s evolution. This newly created role will be the most senior marketing position in BAMKO’s history, giving the team a seat at our executive table. In this role, David will oversee global marketing strategy, brand architecture, demand generation, and digital innovation, aligning marketing initiatives directly with BAMKO’s enterprise growth objectives.
“Creating this role represents a direct investment in the leadership required to take BAMKO to the next level,” said Jake Himelstein, President of BAMKO. “David brings the exact strategic vision and enterprise experience needed to amplify our brand and build on our business momentum.”
We sat down with David to chat about what brought him to the promo space, his game plan for year one, and where he sees BAMKO heading.
Q: How do you define your immediate priorities in this newly created role, and what does success look like in year one?
A: My immediate priority is making sure our presence in the market matches the actual scale and ambition of what we’re doing inside BAMKO. The company is already a top-tier player in global sourcing, custom tech, and high-impact creative, but there’s a huge opportunity to tell that story louder, clearer, and to new audiences.
In year one, success comes down to two main things. First, building a scalable marketing engine that gives our sales team more fuel: bringing in better leads, opening doors with enterprise buyers who might not traditionally think about merchandise strategically, and supporting the relationships that built this business. Second, it’s about education. We want to change how the industry thinks about branded merchandise, educating those broader audiences on how physical touchpoints drive real employee engagement, client retention, and ROI.
Q: What pulled you toward the promotional products and branded merchandise space, and what unique opportunities do you see for BAMKO right now?
A: In a world saturated with digital noise, physical touchpoints have become one of the most powerful vectors for brand engagement. What pulled me to BAMKO specifically is the scale of the engine here. The global footprint, factory-direct sourcing, and custom tech platforms give us a massive head start. I see a huge opportunity to grow our presence across brand-new audiences, reaching decision-makers who haven’t historically thought about merchandise as a core marketing lever, and shifting the conversation from tactical, one-off purchasing to a strategic, enterprise growth channel.
Q: Your expertise lies heavily in enterprise B2B strategy. How do you plan to leverage data, technology, and modern marketing frameworks to elevate BAMKO’s go-to-market execution and client experiences?
A: BAMKO has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. Their proprietary platforms and digital capabilities are built into the company’s DNA. The opportunity now is taking that tech-driven foundation and turning our data into a massive growth engine that directly supports sales.
My focus is guiding that evolution: building toward precision Account-Based Marketing (ABM), full-funnel pipeline insights, and modern enterprise campaigns. Instead of marketing sitting in a silo, we’re working to integrate our tech stack directly into sales enablement. That means equipping our account leaders with better intelligence on buyer intent, account engagement, and client trends before they even hop on a call. The end goal is hyper-personalized client journeys, and a sales team that shows up not just as suppliers fulfilling orders, but as data-informed advisors.
Q: What future capabilities, investments, or team expansions do you envision coming next to support that momentum?
A: On the people side, we’re planning to grow our team with specialized talent across demand generation and digital brand experiences. The goal is to build an agile, modern marketing department that operates with agency-level agility and enterprise-level scale.
As we look ahead, we’re planning significant investment in growth marketing to expand BAMKO’s reach into brand-new audiences and market segments. We’re also working behind the scenes on platform upgrades that will elevate how our clients manage and experience their brand merchandise globally. We’re building a foundation that not only supports our current momentum, but sets a whole new benchmark for what this industry can deliver.
Q: What is the best promotional product or corporate gift you’ve ever received and why?
A: Honestly, the best one came from BAMKO right when I joined. My family had just welcomed a new baby, and the team sent a premium Dagne Dover diaper bag. It hit the mark on every level; it was a top-tier product I actually needed, but more importantly, it showed that BAMKO was genuinely invested in me as a person, not just an employee.
Looking Ahead to BAMKO’s Next Chapter
David’s arrival marks an exciting new milestone as BAMKO continues to reframe what branded merchandise and global marketing strategy can achieve together. By uniting data-driven enterprise strategy with creative execution, we are positioned to deliver even greater value to our clients, partners, and teams worldwide.
“BAMKO’s trajectory speaks for itself, and investing in brand and marketing leadership right now shows incredible foresight,” said Harney. “I’m excited to join at such a pivotal moment and build out the capabilities that will drive our next phase of growth.”
Ready to elevate your brand’s merchandise strategy?
Whether you’re looking to launch a global employee engagement program or create unforgettable, high-impact brand activations, BAMKO brings the global scale, factory-direct sourcing, and creative execution to make it happen.
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