The DMA Board Elects New 2003 Officers
J. Jill Group’s Gordon R. Cooke Named Chairman
Norm Thompson Outfitters’ Rebecca Jewett Named Vice Chairman
SAN FRANCISCO, October 20, 2002 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) Board of Directors today named Gordon R. Cooke, president & CEO, The J. Jill Group, Inc. (Quincy, MA), to serve as its 2003 chairman. The Board has also selected Rebecca Jewett, president, Norm Thompson Outfitters (Hillsboro, OR), to serve as the vice chairman. Their terms of office will commence on October 23, following The DMA’s 85th Annual Conference & Exhibition at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.
In addition, the Board also elected Ronald L. Bliwas, president & CEO, A. Eicoff & Company (Chicago, IL), to serve as secretary and Stephen M. Lacy, president, Publishing Group
Meredith Corporation (Des Moines, IA), to serve as treasurer of the organization.
Gordon R. Cooke is currently vice chairman of The DMA Board of Directors. He has been president & CEO of the J. Jill Group and a director since joining the company in December 1995. He has served as the corporation’s chairman of the board of directors since August 1997. Prior to joining J. Jill, Cooke served as president of Time-Warner Interactive Merchandising, a division of Time Warner Inc., from November 1993 to December 1995. He was elected to The DMA Board of Directors in 1998.
Rebecca Jewett is president of the cataloger Norm Thompson Outfitters, Inc. She is responsible for the company’s three catalog divisions: Norm Thompson, Solutions, and Early Winters. Prior to joining Norm Thompson, Jewett served as president of the catalog company Chadwick’s of Boston and has held the positions of senior vice president of marketing for Talbots and vice president of marketing for The Swiss Colony, Inc.
The DMA Chairman Selection Committee was chaired by Charles D. Morgan, company leader, ACXIOM Corporation, and 2001 DMA Chairman of the Board, and included Michael P. Sherman, president, Fingerhut Companies, and 2002 DMA Chairman of the Board; John F. Temple, president & CEO, Guideposts; Steven G. Dapper, president & CEO, Hawkeye Communications; and H. Robert Wientzen, president & CEO, The DMA.
The DMA is the leading and largest trade association for businesses interested in direct, database and interactive marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors, including catalogers, Internet Service Providers, dot-coms, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.86 trillion in 2001, including $118 billion in catalog sales and $30 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web Site is
www.the-dma.org and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.###
Media Contact: Christina Duffney
212.790.1532/cduffney@the-dma.org