Fairfax, Virginia-based Custom Ink, one of the fastest-growing D.C.-area companies but one that was hit hard by the pandemic, has named a new CEO to succeed its co-founder after nearly 25 years.
David Doctorow, former CEO of Realtor.com‘s parent company Move, Inc., will assume the chief executive role and join the company’s board of directors in August. CEO Marc Katz, who founded Custom Ink with fellow Harvard University classmates in 2000, will remain chairman of the board.
“We’ve undertaken major changes since the pandemic to refocus on our digital roots, and now it’s time for a new CEO to lead us to new heights,” Katz said in a news release. “David is a proven leader with an impressive track record building digital business. He’s also a terrific person, and the Board and I have enormous confidence in him to lead Custom Ink.”
Before Realtor.com, Doctorow led eBay’s global growth team, and previously served as chief marketing officer for Expedia.
“This is a great company, built on a foundation of strong values, and I feel deeply aligned with its mission to help people create a stronger sense of community and connection. I also see tremendous potential for further growth and look forward to working with my fellow Inkers and our partners to keep wowing customers and building the business,” Doctorow said in a news release.
Custom Ink is consistently rated one of the best companies to work for, including recognition on the annual Fortune list, where it ranked No. 8 in retail last year. It also has one of the highest concentrations of women and minority employees, at 55% and 27% respectively.
The company’s business is helping clients promote their own businesses, with custom-made company logo T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and other swag. But when the pandemic hit and in-person conferences and conventions were sidelined, so was much of its business.
It temporarily furloughed hundreds of employees in 2020, and pivoted to producing and distributing cloth face masks that spring. It later closed production facilities in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Reno, Nevada. Last year it closed a production facility in Dallas, and cut hundreds of jobs across the country.
Custom Ink has since expanded through acquisitions, including Denver-based swag ordering platform Printfection and New York-based Swag.com. Last year, it launched Swag Space, a platform for promotional product distributors.
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