DMEF Announces 2008 'Rising Stars' and 'Corporate Commitment' Award Winners

Honors to Be Presented During June 10 Dinner in New York City

New York, NY, March 14, 2008 — At a time when role models may seem in short supply, the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) has found several people worth admiring and celebrating. Today, five honorees were named as the 2008 DMEF Rising Stars Award winners and one prominent company earned the 2008 DMEF Corporate Commitment Award.

The five 2008 DMEF Rising Stars Award winners are Janet Barker-Evans, Draftfcb; Todd Leiser, Rodale, Inc.; Joseph Pak, Google, Inc.; Joe Pych, NextMark, Inc.; and Jeff Yowell, Datacore Marketing. The 2008 DMEF Corporate Commitment Award winner is Wunderman/KnowledgeBase Marketing (KBM).

The honors will be presented at DMEF’s Rising Stars Awards Dinner in New York City, which will be held on June 10, 2008, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. The all-star networking event will be held in conjunction with DM Days New York Conference & Expo, which will take place June 10-12 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, NY. To reserve a seat at the dinner table, click here.

In announcing the Foundation’s honorees, DMEF Chairman and DMRA Chief Marketing Officer Allen W. Dyon said, “These two DMEF awards, which are presented each June, have one big thing in common: They recognize an unwavering commitment to advancing the direct marketing profession through education and … giving back. When we gather on June 10 in the heart of New York City, not only will we be celebrating the generous contributions of Wunderman/KnowledgeBase and these five direct marketing professionals, we will be looking toward the future. And nothing represents the potential of tomorrow like the spirit and success — not to mention the variety — of our 2008 award recipients.”

“Each of these winners clearly possesses the qualities of innovation, creativity and team spirit, combined with an indomitable will to succeed,” Dyon continued. “At the same time, they never forget the importance of supporting the direct marketing community by helping others. This year’s Rising Stars and our Corporate Commitment winner embody that spirit.”

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: Wunderman/KnowledgeBase Marketing

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.

“Both KnowledgeBase Marketing and Wunderman embody the curious, knowledge-hungry culture in which direct marketing careers thrive,” Dyon said. “Not only do both organizations nurture the skills, knowledge, and careers of their employees, but they contribute to the direct marketing industry by sharing their knowledge and best practices with clients and fellow direct marketers.”

Commitment to direct marketing education runs deep at Wunderman and KnowledgeBase Marketing. This is evident in the representatives who will be accepting the award on June 10: KnowledgeBase Marketing President and CEO Gary Laben and Wunderman Chairman and CEO Daniel Morel. Laben serves as vice chairman/chairman-elect of DMEF and is also a member of the DMA Ethics Policy Committee. As a DMA board member, Morel has been a proactive advocate of DMEF.

This commitment to education is also 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).

To reserve a seat at the dinner table, click here.

For photos of the Rising Stars winners or additional information, please contact Sue R.E. Geramian, DMA’s senior vice president of communications, public and media relations, at sgeramian@the-dma.org.

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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