ERA PRESS RELEASE
March 4, 2025
Contact: Clare Kluck / Communications Director / ckluck@era.org

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ERA Honors Erin Collins with the 2024 Tess Hill Award

The Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) was pleased to honor Erin Collins, former events director for ERA, with the 2024 Tess Hill Award. This award was presented to Collins at the 2025 ERA Conference in Austin, Texas, in February 2025.

ERA XCOM leaders John O’Brien, CPMR, and Tom Griffin, CPMR, present Erin Collins with the Tess Hill Award at the 2025 ERA Conference.

The Tess Hill Award was created in 2017 to honor Tess Hill, a 50-year-long ERA staff member, and those who emulate Tess’s significant dedication, dependable work and years of loyalty to ERA.

Known for her top-tier organizational skills, impressive drive and seasoned event-planning skills, Erin was the Director of Events for ERA for seven years before departing in August 2025. During her time with ERA, she led the coordination of the annual ERA Conference, STEP, COLT and ERA LIVE sessions, as well as ERA activities at the EDS Summit and electronica. Under her leadership, ERA Conference attendance grew almost three-fold in a short time period.

“There is no more deserving recipient of the Tess Hill award than Erin Collins, who emulates Tess’s dedication and hard work to a tee,” said Walter Tobin, ERA CEO. “We are grateful for Erin’s diligent, unflagging work for ERA during her tenure here. Her efforts set a high bar for ERA events that continues to this day, and for that we will be ever grateful.”

Previous recipients of the award are:

Holly Myers, CPMR 2023
Ellen Coan, CPMR 2022
Kathy Green, ERA 2021
Karin Derkacz, ERA 2020
Bob Evans, CPMR 2019
Kathie Cahill, CPMR 2018
Tess Hill, ERA, 2017

About ERA
The 90-year-old Electronics Representatives Association (ERA) is the international trade organization for professional field sales companies in the global electronics industries, manufacturers who go to market through representative firms and global distributors. It is the mission of ERA to support the professional field sales function through programs and activities that educate, inform and advocate for manufacturers’ representatives, the principals they represent and the distributors who are reps’ partners in local territories. For more information about ERA, visit era.org.