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STAFDA News, April/May 2012


STAFDA’s Orlando General Session
Speakers Announced

Former U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will be the keynote speaker at STAFDA’s upcoming November 4-6 Orlando Convention & Trade Show.

The Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA) is pleased to announce former U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will be the keynote speaker at STAFDA’s upcoming November 4-6 Orlando Convention & Trade Show. Ms. Rice will address attendees on Monday, November 5, during the Association’s General Session. The Presidential election is Tuesday, November 6, so her remarks on politics and the U.S. and global economies will be quite timely.

In the mid-1980s, Ms. Rice served in Washington D.C. as an international affairs fellow attached to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1989, she became director of Soviet and East European affairs with the National Security Council and special assistant to President George Bush during the
dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification.

In 1997, Ms. Rice served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the
Military and was appointed National Security Advisor by President George W. Bush in 2001. In 2004, Ms. Rice became the 66th Secretary of State following Colin Powell’s resignation. (Colin Powell was STAFDA’s 2005 keynote speaker.)

As Secretary of State from 2005-2009, she dedicated
her department to “Transformational Diplomacy” with
a mission of building and sustaining democratic,
well-governed states around the world, particularly
the Middle East. To that end, she relocated American diplomats to such hardship locations as Iraq, Afghanistan and Angola, and required them to become fluent in two foreign languages. Ms. Rice also created a high-level position to de-fragment U.S. foreign aid.

Jim Fall, Business & Operation Director, 3M Industrial Adhesive & Tape Division.

Jim Fall, Business & Operation Director, 3M Industrial Adhesive & Tape Division, St. Paul, MN, will be STAFDA’s Associate State of the Industry Speaker during the General Session.

He has 25 years of experience with 3M and has held numerous leadership positions within the company including: sales & marketing director, 3M Personal Care Division; Business Manager, 3M Converter Markets; business director, 3M European Industrial Adhesive & Tape Division; product manager and sales manager.

Fall is a member of the Pressure Sensitive Tape Council and chairman of the 3M Converter Markets Advisory Committee for the corporation.

STAFDA president, Kramer Darragh, president of Darragh Co., Little Rock, AR, will provide the Distributor State of the Industry. He is a third-generation owner of the family-run business that includes six branches in Arkansas, one in Texas and five Tool Central locations selling concrete and highway construction accessories, waterproofing and masonry supplies, erosion control systems, scaffolding, tools and fasteners and fabricates rebar.

Kramer Darragh, president of Darragh Co.

You must be a STAFDA member to attend or exhibit at the STAFDA Convention & Trade Show. Registration materials for STAFDA’s Orlando Convention & Trade Show will mail to members on Friday, June 29, with online registration from the members-only section of  its Web site beginning Monday, July 2, at 8 a.m. central. It is a closed show for members only.

For more information on the Convention and STAFDA membership, contact Catherine Usher, STAFDA member services director, 262/784-4774 or 800/352 2981, cusher@stafda.org, or visit STAFDA’s Web site, www.stafda.org.

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