MSM Inc., founder and CEO Donna Shultz is proud to announce the promotion of Laurie Kamal to president and chief financial officer.
Shultz founded the company in 1993 and has spent the last decade transforming the organization from a tradeshow supplier into a full-fledged experiential agency. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which effectively cancelled 95 percent of the industry’s 2020 live events, MSM dramatically redefined its service offerings with the launch of proprietary virtual event solution LiVi. With the organization beginning a new chapter, Laurie Kamal, former vice president of finance, has been charged with helping to lead the organization as president and chief financial officer.
Though MSM’s leadership team has been developing a succession plan since 2012, the recent decision to promote Kamal to this key leadership position came quite easily. Says Shultz (pictured right), “Laurie has been working in this capacity for years. After 14 years as MSM’s VP of Finance, she has been intimately involved with every aspect of the business—from construction and warehouse operations, to the implementation of our new ERP system, and all high-level customer relationships.” As such, she believes this next step makes perfect sense for both Kamal and the organization as it looks to its future.
Shultz will maintain her position as CEO, with a renewed focus on fostering and pursuing the company’s mission, vision and strategy. Shultz adds, “After launching our new Virtual Platform LiVi in August of 2020, our team realized that COVID helped MSM move lightspeed into the future, and that we will come out of this pandemic as a better, stronger company. We used to build exhibits. We are now a software company that sells live and virtual customer experiences.” Shultz will continue to be the visionary for MSM, while ensuring that the integrity of what the organization does best as an experiential partner remains at the core of its new ventures.
Shultz and MSM’s leadership team have the utmost confidence in Kamal and what she will bring to the table in her new capacity. “Laurie is an incredible leader, a future thinker, and one of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing,” says Shultz. “She has been preparing for this opportunity for years and will undoubtedly propel the organization into a successful new chapter of its legacy.”
MSM Inc. is a woman-owned experience agency based in Rochester, N.Y., focused on delivering quality, service and innovation in bringing brand stories to life for live and virtual events, as well as temporary and permanent installations. MSM was the first agency RFP-certified by the EDPA, is a top industry fabricator with recurring placement on Exhibitor magazine’s Find It Top 40 List and Event Marketer’s Fab 50 List, and opened sister agency The Experience Shop in 2018 to expand its offerings in non-traditional event marketing experiences. For more info, visit www.msmxp.com.
