Jon Schneider, executive VP and director of client service for the flagship office of MRM Worldwide, died suddenly on Sunday, March 22, at his home in Brooklyn, NY.
He was 52 years old.
Schneider, a brand advertising and digital/direct marketing veteran, joined MRM Worldwide in April 2006, and was a member of the agency’s executive leadership team.
Schneider joined MRM from Digitas in New York, where he had been VP and marketing director.
“Jon and I go back a long way,” said MRM Worldwide CEO Reuben Hendell in a statement. “I’ll miss his clear-eyed, no-nonsense assessments, which were more often than not delivered with warmth and his signature wry humor. I’m proud to say that over the years he became a friend in addition to a trusted colleague, and I think I speak for the entire agency and the clients that have gotten to know Jon, in saying that he will be very sorely missed. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.”
In addition to their time at MRM, Hendell and Schneider worked together when the two were at Digitas.
Prior to MRM, Jon spent nearly eight years at Digitas, which he joined in 1998. At Digitas, he led eCRM and digital marketing efforts for the wireless business and financial services accounts.
Schneider’s advertising career began in 1979 at Pearson, PLC: Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall, where he started as a copywriter and worked his way up by 1985 to Software Marketing Manager in the publishing house’s General Reference group. From 1985 to 1988, he worked at Grey as an Account Executive and then spent one year at JWT as a senior account executive.
Schneider joined Ogilvy & Mather Direct in 1991 and began working in a category that would become one of his specialties—telecom. In a second stint at Chapman Direct Advertising from 1993 to 1997, Schneider worked on high-tech accounts. Between 1997 and 1998 he was an account director at Wunderman, Cato, Johnson--a division of Young & Rubicam, Inc.
He is survived by his wife, Rosemary, two brothers, Tom and Russ, a sister, Sue, and 20 nieces and nephews.
A wake will be held on Thursday, March 26 at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue at 81st Street in New York City, from 2-5 p.m. and from 7-9 p.m. A funeral service will take place at the chapel on Friday, March 27 at 11:30 a.m.
