The all-star networking event was held in conjunction with DM Days New York Conference & Expo, which kicked off Tuesday and concludes Thursday, June 12.
In announcing the Foundation’s honorees, DMEF Chairman and DMRA Chief Marketing Officer Allen W. Dyon said, “These two DMEF awards have one big thing in common ¾ they recognize an unwavering commitment to advancing the direct marketing profession through education and giving back. Tonight we celebrate the generous contributions of Wunderman/KnowledgeBase, and the promise of these five direct marketing professionals!”
2008 DMEF Rising Stars Honorees
Now in its second year, the DMEF’s Rising Stars Award is presented to professionals who are 40 years or younger and who demonstrate superior leadership abilities, including a strong track record of outstanding results, as well as a stellar reputation for “giving back” through direct marketing education, exemplified by activities such as teaching and mentoring.
The 2008 winners are:
· Janet Barker-Evans, Senior Vice President, Draftfcb — Barker-Evans’ contributions to direct marketing span educational, professional, and philanthropic arenas. She leads creative work on Draftfcb’s core accounts that cross various marketing services, including advertising, promotion, direct, and digital. Giving back generously to the direct marketing community, she taught college classes in advertising strategy and Internet marketing and mentored future direct marketers.
· Todd Leiser, Vice President of Database Marketing, Rodale Direct, Rodale, Inc. — With 17 years of experience in direct response and database marketing to his credit, Leiser heads all of Rodale’s database marketing and customer analytics activities, including the design and implementation of database-driven marketing solutions and consumer database management. For the past four years, he has served on the DMA’s Ethics Policy Committee and was its 2007 chairperson.
· Joseph Pak, Sales Operations Senior Analyst, Google, Inc. — How exactly would search engine marketing fare in Africa? Pak has helped answer that question and more since joining Google in 2003. As a representative in London of the Europe/Middle East/Africa Group (EMEA), the recent graduate of New York University’s direct and interactive marketing master’s degree program quickly made his mark and, from there, he went to China as a B-to-B marketing manager.
· Joe Pych, Founder and President, NextMark, Inc. — Maybe a customer received a mailed catalog, leafed through it, and purchased online. How would a company know what spurred the sale? Thanks to Pych, they can figure it out with a little trick called “matchback” or “implied response attribution” and find the order’s likely origination. But matchback is just one of Pych’s contributions to direct marketing process and streamlined mailing lists, in particular.
· Jeff Yowell, Founder, President and CEO, Datacore Marketing — With large, disused company databases in mind, Yowell started his two-person marketing support business in an effort to bring face-to-face interaction to specific situations. Eighteen years later, Yowell is providing his nationally renowned clients with strategic marketing solutions that integrate marketing strategy, database management, technology, and program management.
2008 DMEF Corporate Commitment Awardee: KnowledgeBase Marketing/Wunderman
The DMEF’s Corporate Commitment Award honors companies that regularly demonstrate a commitment to excellence in all areas of direct marketing education among new and upcoming talent, and that consistently participate in activities that foster and promote excellence — for today and tomorrow.
Representatives who accepted the award last evening were KnowledgeBase Marketing President and CEO Gary Laben and Wunderman – New York President Becky Chidester.
Commitment to direct marketing education runs deep at Wunderman and KnowledgeBase Marketing. It is evident in Wunderman University, the company’s global direct marketing learning center. Wunderman University provides employees worldwide — including its operating companies such as KBM, DATACORE Marketing and ZAAZ — a standardized direct marketing curriculum taught by a network of internal “faculty.”
KnowledgeBase Marketing also provides internal multi-level training opportunities, in which employees learn about the direct marketing process, the competitive landscape, the needs of their clients and prospects, ethics and privacy, as well as best practices in their individual jobs.
In addition, this commitment to education includes speaking at direct marketing conferences worldwide and publishing research and articles.
In 2007, Time Consumer Marketing, Inc. earned the first Corporate Commitment Award. The honor, previously named the DMEF Corporate Leadership Award, has also been earned by Bookspan (2006), Kraft (2005), and America OnLine (2004).
About Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF)
Headquartered in New York City, the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) works to attract, educate, and place top college students by continuously improving the teaching of world-class direct/interactive marketing and, thereby, expand and enrich the talent pool of trained, market-ready direct marketers. Established in 1966 by members of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) who wanted to give something back to the community, DMEF is today a separate, 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that is supported solely by tax-deductible contributions from individuals, companies, and regional clubs and associations. Funds raised go toward a broad range of world-class educational programs.
Since its founding, thousands of students have taken advantage of DMEF’s educational programs, entering the field with the competitive edge of being “workplace-ready.” Many have gone on to become today’s direct marketing leaders, an indication of the Foundation’s success. In addition, more than 1,800 professors have participated in DMEF programs. Thanks in significant part to the Foundation’s four decades of work, today approximately 250 colleges and universities offer courses in direct/interactive marketing, 20 of which now offer specific direct marketing degrees and certificate programs. For additional information about the DMEF, its mission, and its programs, visit www.the-dmef.org.
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