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ecoEnvelopes, LLC

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2013 Steve Awards for Women in Business

Company: ecoEnvelopes, LLC
Company Description: With ecoEnvelopes, everyone can participate in environmental stewardship. Our product line of single reusable, 2-way envelopes allows communications to be sent in one envelope instead of two envelopes. This reduces environmental impact and allows companies and organizations to save money on their mailing.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –10 or Less Employees

Nomination Title: Gale Ward, President and General Manager

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words):

Most investors and outsiders expect a company executive, particularly in a small organization to “do what it takes” to manage the business. Why would an employee and minority owner work without compensation for almost two years and do this? As the person responsible for securing investment funding in 2007 and 2008, Gale Ward was unwilling to walk away from the trust placed in her and ecoEnvelopes.

Coming into July of 2011, the company had few customers, insufficient funds to meet monthly expenses and ongoing debts from prior years. Ever the optimist, Gale continued to move forward as she undertook several key initiatives. The company changed its market approach from “eco” green to “$” green, appealing to customers’ desire to reduce costs over environmental savings. Secondly, she began partnering with technology vendors, manufacturers and even competitors.

Finally, in October 2011 she had closed and personally project-managed Sprint to launch a revolutionary 2-way ecoEnvelope for their consumer wireless billing.

Gale has been able to launch ecoEnvelopes’ innovative product line of reusable 2-way envelopes into being a national product demonstrating large, quantifiable financial and environmental savings. Beginning with a pilot in October, 2011 through rollout in 2012, Sprint’s success with ecoEnvelopes laid the foundation for continued growth. Having Sprint as a customer who is willing to share publicly the environmental and financial benefits of ecoEnvelopes with the market is opening new doors for the company and its products.

Sprint will mail approximately 100 million ecoEnvelopes each year. The savings for Sprint are significant. Sprint estimates the new envelope format will save just under a half-million dollars in operational costs and the equivalent of:

•447 tons of paper
•1,669 tons of wood, or 11,565 trees
•9,931,834 gallons of water, or 15 Olympic size swimming pools
•859,047 pounds of solid waster, or 31 loaded garbage trucks
•2,692,185 pounds of CO2, or 244 cars off the road/year

The work with Sprint is landmark for the mailing industry. ecoEnvelopes provides a innovative way to increase the relevance of mail, engaging consumers in conservation while at the same time providing a hard ROI for companies engaged in both direct mail marketing and statement mailing. ecoEnvelopes’ products and approach are also unique since the product can be customized to meet the needs and existing processes of the customers.

Because of Gale’s perseverance, she was able to secure Sprint as a customer and land the company its first major, national account which dramatically changed the outlook of the company. Her vision in changing the company’s approach and relationship with the market are opening new growth opportunities.

Gale has been able to truly keep ecoEnvelopes alive, provide a critical mail solution and make an impact on environmental protection.

Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 100 words):

Gale is a skilled market strategist and leader with Fortune and start-up experience. She joined ecoEnvelopes, LLC in 2005 as VP of Sales, and in 2010 became Company President and General Manager. Under her leadership the company made financial turnaround. Previous career experience includes founding The Ward Group, a consulting firm; serving as President of Entropy Solutions, Inc.; serving as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Integrated Decisions and Systems, Inc.; serving as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Vallon, Inc. She earned a B.B.A. in Finance from Iona College in New York.