Gerry Pike, the dissident Direct Marketing Association board member who launched a reform-based proxy campaign, was re-elected to the DMA’s board during the organization’s annual business meeting. Pike had been the only board member not re-nominated by the nomination committee.
In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s business meeting, Pike and the DMA had waged a proxy vote campaign. The DMA board had sought election of its slate of nominees, while Pike was looking to amend its bylaws to allow on-site board member nominations, as well as participation by all DMA voting members in the board election process.
Pike’s two proposed by-laws changes were not voted on, nor were the proxy vote tallies announced, although IVS, an independent proxy election monitoring firm, was on hand to collect and count the votes.
At the business meeting, Pike held a two-inch loose-leaf binder which was roughly two-thirds full of votes. He also claimed to have some electronic proxies, which were not in the binder. All in all, he said he had amassed “hundreds” of votes.
Pike, who is returning for his second term, is joined by what he called a “reform block” of two other voting members he recommended. The two voting members are Matt Blumberg, CEO of e-mail deliverability firm Return Path, and Chris Bradley, CEO of home fashions marketer Cuddledown. Both are first-time DMA board members. Blumberg will also take a seat on the board’s executive committee.
The three voting reform block members take the board seats previously held by Christine Aguilera, president of SkyMall Inc.; Don McKenzie, president and CEO of Direct Group; and Wesley D. Protheroe, president and CEO of Gerber Life Insurance Co. All three had been on an earlier slate of board members, and all were nominees for a second term.
Additionally, the board is being expanded to include three “adjunct members” (a newly created board member class) who will serve as membership representatives, but will not have voting privileges and will be excused from certain board functions.
The three inaugural adjunct members are Suresh Mathai, CEO of ContinuumGlobal, Inc.; John Papalia, president and CEO at Statlistics; and Charles Prescott, the DMA’s former VP of global knowledge who currently serves as chairman of the consultative committee of the Universal Postal Union.
The reform block changes came about as the result of discussions – not, as Pike said emphatically after the business meeting, negotiations – with a variety of board members held during the morning before business meeting.
“The board [members] adopted this,” Pike said. “They didn’t resist it. The board has adopted a reform agenda which has been embraced by the incoming chairman. He is going to lead the drive.”
“My agenda as vice chair was always change and reform,” the new chair, Allied World Assurance Co. senior VP for accident and health and CMO, Asia Eugene Raitt, said during the business meeting. During the upcoming year, “nothing will be sacrosanct – not even the [organization’s] name and logo.”
Raitt pledged increased transparency on a number of fronts, including membership numbers, financials and event attendance figures. Additionally, the board has passed a motion to form a committee which will review and rewrite the DMA’s bylaws.
Raitt also gave Pike credit for creating energy and buzz, and opening up a dialog between members and the board.
After the business meeting, President and CEO John A. Greco Jr., who did not speak during the meeting, said that he would continue focusing on membership and the organization’s mission.
The meeting itself was apparently a departure from the nondescript affairs of years past. Previously, they had been pro forma affairs attended by no outsiders save for Litle & Co. chairman Tim Litle.
On Sunday, the Crystal Ballroom at the U.S. Grant hotel in San Diego held around 150 people, all of whom listened intently with but a single quickly muted cell phone interruption.
“It’s a little disappointing to see such a small turnout. It’s the smallest we’ve had in years,” outgoing chairman Kelly B. Browning joked during his opening remarks.
Browning quickly struck a more somber note. “Make no mistake – this has been a rough year for our association and most of our members,” he said, adding that although attendance at its events has been down “the quality of interactions [between vendors and prospects] was higher.”
A report from outgoing treasurer David S. Williams confirmed the “rough” characterization of the past year. The DMA racked up $33.6 million in operating expenses for the fiscal year which ended on June 30, against operating revenue and other gains of $30.8 million – a $2.7 million shortfall. Still, Williams, said, this was on the low end of the operating losses foreseen at the beginning of the year, when estimates ranged from $2.5 million to $4 million.
