Wallach Gets Nod For IRTA Hall-Of-Fame Award

(Introduction by Krista Vardabash)

The International Reciprocal Trade Association’s Hall-Of-Fame is the highest honor IRTA bestows. The honor recognizes individuals whom the Hall Of Fame Inductees feel are regarded as an “indisputable leader in the barter industry.”

What makes an indisputable leader? Someone who has been in the barter industry for at least 10 continuous years, and has made universally recognized and specific contributions to the barter industry as a whole. Above all, inductees must be regarded in the industry as highly professional and ethical.

I think many of you will agree that this description is just not big enough to adequately describe the person who we induct tonight to the IRTA Hall of Fame. David Wallach began his career in the Barter Industry in 1976, when he became associated with barter pioneer George Maddox of the United Trade Club.

In 1979 Dave founded his own exchange, the American Trade Association. In that year he joined IRTA and attended the first general meeting in San Jose, California. He has been a continuous member of IRTA ever since.

By 1986 American Trade Association had grown to be one of the top ten exchanges in the United States. David was an early innovator and visionary. He was the first to introduce seller paid service fees, maintain member reserve accounts, and integrate media ratio trading into the retail barter environment.

In 1988, Dave received his first IRTA Distinguished Service Award when he worked to defeat legislation that, if enacted, would have had dire consequences not only in California but throughout the entire industry.

Dave began a program of consolidation in 1995 when he purchased five local trade exchanges and renamed his company ValueCard. By 2000, ValueCard was the largest independent trade exchange on the West Coast with almost 4,000 clients, and the third largest exchange in the nation. Dave sold ValueCard to Intagio, a dot-com company, in 2001.

Over the years, David has worked tirelessly to unite the industry. He has chaired the Ethics, Media, Government Affairs, and Awards committees. He was vice president of the IRTA North American Board, and to this day serves on the IRTA Global Board.

Dave continues to have a vision for the worldwide trade industry. He feels that the trade currency system could benefit the world economy, especially in developing economy’s that are short on cash and long on excess capacity. He believes that our commercial currency could raise the world’s standard of living, and provide a substantial increase in nutrition, education and healthcare. He has attended conferences focused on developing alternative currencies, and as result is studying viable synergies between commercial barter and community currency systems. 

In his local community David is well known for his charitable and humanitarian work. The Leukemia Society of Northern California recognized David naming him the 1992 Man of Year. He has also been a fifteen-year active board member of an organization in San Francisco that teaches homeless people how to feed themselves. 

His three-decade long career continues to be a glowing example of industry service, sharing of expertise, innovation, ethics, leadership and vision. Not to mention that he is just a great guy.

For all of these reasons, and for many more that I am certain to have missed, I am deeply honored to present IRTA’s 2006 Hall of Fame inductee, David Wallach.