Joseph S. Poehling, chairman and CEO, First Supply LLC, headquartered in La Crosse, Wis., was elected to a four-year term as director to the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence, the long-range research arm of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

The NAW was created in 1946 to deal with issues of interest to the entire merchant wholesale distribution industry, thereby freeing affiliated associations to concentrate on the concerns specific to their lines of trade. NAW is a federation of about 100 wholesale distribution associations and thousands of individual firms that collectively total more than 30,000 companies.