DMA Promotes Alan P. Kuritsky to Senior VP Sales & Marketing

New York, NY, September 5, 2007 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today announced the promotion of Alan P. Kuritsky to the position of senior vice president of sales and marketing. Kuritsky, who has served as DMA’s vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer since June 2005, will lead the creation of a new department to advance DMA sales and marketing excellence as well as closely coordinate its member services and benefits, information collection, member data analysis, and marketing campaign execution.

Reporting to DMA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh A. Lakshmi-Ratan, PhD, Kuritsky will have responsibility for all membership acquisition and retention sales and will also lead cross DMA product and service bundling especially for high-end, complex solution sales. Under Kuritsky, DMA’s Sales and Marketing Department will integrate the multiple touch points with which the Association interacts with the greater direct marketing community via mail, email, the Web, phone, radio, magazine, peer-to-peer and mobile media, and in-person contacts.

Kenneth Ebeling, DMA vice president of member loyalty services, along with the Association’s membership sales and services teams will report to Kuritsky. Ebeling will also report to Dr. Ratan in regard to DMA’s 20 special-interest councils and other related member services.

The current Marketing and Marketing Services teams will continue to report to Kuritsky. Their mission, under Kuritsky, will be to advance their knowledge and use of digital media to develop strategies that increasingly tie in Web, search, mobile, and more into DMA’s marketing campaigns. Their goal is to drive DMA’s brand and digital agenda, and to lead by example by successfully integrating digital and database marketing concepts and elements in an effort to deliver more seamless offline/online communications that improve member satisfaction.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Dr. Ratan said, “Alan’s background as the president of a major direct marketing company, as well as his successful sales and marketing leadership in numerous other corporations, are ideally suited to advance DMA in today’s dynamic business environment. The combination of Ken Ebeling's highly skilled professional membership team with the expertise of Alan's marketing group should result in superior benefits for our members and prospects. We are very excited about future growth opportunities with this new organization.”

Kuritsky brings more than 27 years of experience marketing B-to-B and B-to-C products and services. He has experience leading the marketing, sales, and operational divisions of Fortune 100 corporations, as well as mid-size public and private start-up companies. He brings comprehensive perspectives on the direct marketing issues that companies of various types and sizes face, and advises on the ways in which DMA can effectively tackle them.

Prior to joining DMA, Kuritsky served as president of Donnelley Marketing, a leading provider of business and consumer database sales and marketing solutions and DMA member. Prior to that, he served in a variety of senior-management positions at AT&T, IDG, Aether Systems, and France Telecom in the areas of sales, marketing, and market analysis.

Kuritsky holds an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business and an MS in communications research and a BA in behavioral science, both from Boston University.

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association for business and nonprofit organizations that use and support multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable and appropriate offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process.

Founded in 1917, DMA today represents more than 3,600 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 50 other nations, including a majority of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2006, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $166.5 billion on direct marketing in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated $1.93 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted for 10.3 percent of total US gross domestic product (GDP). Today, there are 1.7 million direct marketing employees in the US alone, whose collective sales efforts directly support 8.8 million other jobs. That accounts for 10.5 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

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