Ushering In A New Era At Nama: New CEO Carla Balakgie, Fasae, CAE Officially Begins Her New Role At Nama

NAMA's new CEO, the first woman in the organization's 75-year history, talks about her role and plans. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) December 13, 2011 - Chicago, IL - Carla Balakgie, FASAE, CAE officially begins her new role as the President and CEO of the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), the first woman in the organization's 75-year history to ever hold the position, NAMA Executive VP Dan Mathews, NCE5, CCS Dan Mathews announced today.

When asked about her new role at NAMA Balakgie said, "It is a tremendous honor for me to accept this position. I've dedicated more than 27 years to helping trade and professional societies achieve new levels of excellence and lead transformative results for their members; I could not be more excited about the opportunity to do the same for NAMA."

"My role at NAMA will be to create a shared vision of the future for our organization, then to devise and execute a strategy that will transform that vision into reality. I want to work with our members to chart new pathways that allow them to anticipate the trends and growth opportunities before them, and to position their companies to prosper."

Before joining NAMA, Balakgie served for eight and a half years as CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA); she says there are many similarities between the two organizations including the structure of the membership with both associations representing supply chain industries that include product suppliers, delivery, and sales distribution functions. In addition, in some cases the organizations face the same issues, which will be of tremendous value to NAMA.

Said Balakgie, "My work at ETA on payments related issues in particular is of tremendous value to NAMA given recent, adverse pricing changes associated with small ticket debit transactions. In fact, I've already been advocating on behalf of NAMA though existing relationships I have with payment networks like VISA/MasterCard and financial institutions such as Bank of America."

According to Balakgie, it will be vital for her to take time to meet with and listen carefully to members about all aspects of their operations. "The first step in that process will be to meet and listen with as many members as possible. I'll be listening at all levels of the industry - from CEOs, owners and managers through to route drivers to make sure that I have a complete understanding of day-to-day operations and the things that NAMA can do of greatest impact on their behalf," she said.

Balakgie added that it will also be important for her to lead a reinvigoration of the association and the industry to assure continued growth for both vending and coffee service. "For vending we need to ride the wave of growth associated with new retail technologies and emerging product channels. For coffee service we must exploit all of the opportunities associated with coffee, tea and water which is still a largely untapped market that is experiencing tremendous growth," she said.

A native of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Balakgie began her career pursuing graphic design and commercial printing. She then relocated to Washington, DC accepting a job in the publishing division of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), a move that which instigated her now 27 year tenure in the association management profession. In 2000 Carla was named as an ASAE Fellow, one of ASAEs highest honors conferred upon industry executives who have made significant contributions to the profession during their careers, and she served as chair of this distinguished group for the 2002-2003 term. Carla also holds the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation and was selected for the 1997 ASAE class of Future Leaders.

Concluded Balakgie, "It is a great honor for me to begin my new role at NAMA, and I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity we have before us to build on NAMA's legacy and work together to launch a new and invigorated future for vending and coffee service."

NAMA is the national trade association of the food and refreshment vending, coffee service and foodservice management industries including on-site, commissary, catering, & mobile. Its membership is comprised of service companies, equipment manufacturers and suppliers of products and services to operating service companies. The basic mission of the association, to collectively advance and promote the automatic merchandising and coffee service industries, still guides NAMA today as it did in 1936, the year of the organization's founding.

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