DMA Elects Chairman and Vice Chairman of its Board
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Board of Directors today announced the election of G. Steven Dapper, chairman and founder of hawkeye, as chairman of the board. Don McKenzie, CEO of Direct Group, was elected vice chairman of the board. The terms of office commenced at DMA’s board meeting today in Washington, D.C.
Dapper, currently hawkeye’s chairman and founder, has been an active participant within the direct marketing community for over 25 years and has been associated with DMA for more than 15 years. Previous to hawkeye, he was chairman/CEO of both Wunderman and Rapp Collins. Aspiring to build an agency from scratch where senior talent produces powerful, original creative driven by strategic insight and data analytics, Dapper formed hawkeye in 2000 above his garage in Bronxville, NY, with his golden lab, Jessie. Today, hawkeye has over 300 partners in 10 offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, and creates integrated campaigns (about 70 percent digital) for over 20 Fortune 500 companies.
A native of Iowa (the hawkeye state), Dapper has a passion and curiosity to dig deeper into consumer behavior and apply it to cutting edge, relevant ideas that deliver meaningful results for clients.
In addition to his current role with the DMA, he also sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the business school at Iowa State University. He's been a member of the board of directors for the NYU Direct Marketing MBA program, and was a guest speaker at NYU’s Breakfast Dialogue “What’s Next for Direct and Interactive Marketing?”
Dapper is also the past president of Siwanoy Country Club, home of the first PGA, and served on the board of directors for The Big Apple Circus in New York City. Dapper has lectured about direct marketing from Paris to San Francisco to Sydney to Des Moines, and has worked directly with chief marketing officers and clients such as American Express; Time Life; BASF; L.L.Bean; Capital One; Alltel; AT&T; Microsoft; and Make-A-Wish.
Don McKenzie has more than 25 years of experience in executive management with 12 years in the direct marketing industry. He's effectively led profitable growth for many companies in addition to directing mergers and acquisitions, corporate turnarounds, and realigning leadership teams in order to address economic challenges and new market realities.
Industry segments span print, direct mail, e-marketing, database services, online/web strategy and digital marketing initiatives. McKenzie has been group president for Transcontinental and Advo, both publicly traded companies, and CEO of CC3 and Direct Group, private equity and hedge fund-backed firms. He also led Petsky Prunier, one of the top investment banks in the industry.
McKenzie is currently CEO of Direct Group, a fully integrated direct marketing services provider. Additionally, he serves as vice chairman of Budco, a leading fulfillment and direct marketing company that helps Fortune 500 companies build strong relationships with key business, consumer and employee audiences.
