Storage Business Owners Alliance LLC (SBOA), a buying group for U.S. self-storage operators, has expanded its leadership, marketing and sales teams. Jessica Johnson was promoted from director of marketing and operations to vice president. In addition, the company hired Jess Casto as business development manager and Alec Cohen as marketing and operations manager.
During Johnson’s two-year tenure with SBOA, her team has doubled the company’s social media following, vetted and onboarded new industry-service partners, executed two virtual events, and increased membership by 1,000 within the last 30 days.
“When self-storage owners and operators need guidance, resources, assistance or savings on products and services, my goal is for the SBOA to be top-of-mind for them,” Johnson said.
Casto entered the self-storage industry in 2010 as a property manager in York, Pennsylvania. In 2018, she became the director of marketing for a Pittsburgh-based storage company, and served on the board for the Pennsylvania Self Storage Association before relocating to Georgia last year. She’s also been a presenter at industry conferences.
“I am thrilled to a be a part of a company that so many people have known and loved for years,” Casto said. “With the explosive growth in self-storage over the last 18 months, I can’t wait to help bring this wonderful alliance to the next generation of self-storge owner and operators.”
Cohen recently earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. While in college, he was the managing photo and video editor for “The Michigan Daily.” In 2020, he was awarded the “Ken Fink Photojournalism Award” from “The Michigan Daily” and the “College Coronavirus Coverage Award” from the Society of Professional Journalists. He also won first place for the “Best Sports Photo” from the Michigan Press Association in 2019.
“I am excited to have just graduated college and already be working for a great company and great people, including the SBOA founder and CEO Ian Burnstein,” Cohen said. “Ian is a well-known name in the self-storage industry and in the metro Detroit area. I am excited to work with him and the rest of the SBOA team to help our alliance grow and benefit more members.”
“I believe our company has been blessed to find such amazing talent during these challenging hiring times,” Johnson added. “Due to the aggressive business-development strategies in place for the SBOA over the next 18 months, we had to source top talent to execute. We are fortunate to have such a dynamic team focused on producing better results for both our self-storage owner and operator members and service-provider partners.”
Founded in 2010 by Burnstein and David Levenfeld, SBOA negotiates exclusive offers with prominent industry service providers through economies of scale. It has more than 16,000 member facilities.
