My name is Rosemary Czopek and I am the founder of Gorilla Stationers in Huntington Beach, California.

I’m native to the east coast, New Jersey and Florida, and have been a resident of California for the last 18 years. My educational background includes undergraduate at Cal State Long Beach and graduate work at UCLA Anderson School of Business.

I’ve been part of the office products industry for over 18 years with a proven track record in promotional and business products distribution. I started my career working for two family owned businesses. I progressed quickly to an executive position and learned about customer wants and needs. It became clearly apparent that “reliability” is the key to building a lasting business relationship. Those who compete on price alone always leave themselves open to a lower bid. Success in our business also requires leveraging technology and a willingness to change, to leave behind old ideas and to change the paradigm. It is also about building a “network” and creating strong partnerships on both the supplier side and the customer side.

The only way to completely control my personal destiny was to own my own company. Rather than working as an employee, my goal was to start and grow a business. This required that I was willing to assume all the risk, so that I could reap all the rewards that go along with owning a business. In the last 2 years, Gorilla has made two acquisitions as part of my growth strategy.

The business aspect is not the only rewarding part of my decision. Owning a business allows flexibility to participate in community and charitable works, something also very near and dear to my heart. I am privileged to have the opportunity to work with several non-profit organizations that assist children in accessing educational opportunities they would not otherwise have. I presently a board member for Boys Hope, Girls Hope. In the future Gorilla Stationers will support other I non-profit organizations as well.

As well, Gorilla Stationers has expanded our community outreach and partnership with the University of California system. Since November 2014, Gorilla Stationers has been providing internship opportunities to several aspiring professionals from all over the world. Interns from Italy, Chile, Spain, Brazil, India, El Salvador and beyond have continued their coursework by gaining a hands-on approach to social marketing, SEO branding, and web development.