Welcome to the 2018 Power 50 list, which ranks the most influential people in the industry.

#27 Jana Miller Schmidt, Harland Clarke (asi/219943)

2017 Rank: N/A
Title: President
Industry Experience: 2 years

At the helm of Harland Clarke, the company that made headlines last year for powering Walmart’s entry into the promotional products market, Schmidt is an executive to watch closely. Her industry influence was only heightened this year when the San Antonio-based distributor struck again, partnering with Costco to sell promo items directly to end-users through a mobile-friendly website.

What was the reasoning behind these moves? According to Schmidt, while her company is known for its payment tools, like checks and cards, Harland Clarke entered the promo space at the urging of its customers.

“Clients asked what else we could do for them,” Schmidt says. “We’re built on customer engagement – our goal is to help our clients serve their consumers. Promotional products are a natural fit because we’ve been in the customization business forever and now we can do it in a timeframe that meets our immediate gratification world.”

“Count your blessings when you face challenges because they’re setting you up for the successes that are possible. I know it’s trite to say, but don’t ever quit.” Jana Miller Schmidt, Harland Clarke

Joining Harland Clarke in 1990, Schmidt went on to become the executive vice president of sales and marketing, responsible for revenues of over $500 million in working with 14,000 financial services clients. After 20 years, she left Harland Clarke to work at energy management firm Ecova, helping companies like McDonalds, Starbucks and Home Depot build plans to reduce their carbon footprint. After Ecova was acquired by French-based electric utility company ENGIE, Schmidt returned to her stomping grounds as president of Harland Clarke Intelligent Solutions before being promoted to company president in November of 2017.

“It was an incredible experience for me to be in such a fast-changing industry like energy,” Schmidt says. “I’m a dot connector. I’m always looking to create solid, sustainable growth opportunities. I’ve been able to bring what I’ve learned about data, technology and sustainability back to Harland Clarke.”

As the company fine-tunes its role in the promotional products industry, Schmidt considers not only hiring top professionals, but also effectively positioning her current employees as her number-one goal. “I’m constantly thinking about who the right people are to take us to the next level,” she says. “We have a wonderful mixture of tenured staff augmented with people who bring diversity and different expertise, such as a digital or technological background.”

Of course, in this ever-changing landscape, stumbling blocks are to be expected. But Schmidt welcomes the challenges, believing that failure is the best education. For example, her team once lost a major client that they had developed a $25 million relationship with. Schmidt said she went into a state of depression, considering layoffs and downsizing as a result.

Then one morning, she woke up with this intense fire inside her, hell-bent on landing a client four times the size of her previous one. Two years later, her team made it happen. “Every negative or failure was the best thing to ever happen to me,” Schmidt says. “Count your blessings when you face challenges because they’re setting you up for the successes that are possible. I know it’s trite to say, but don’t ever quit.”