Meet the Broker: Thom Hansen
Today we meet Thom Hansen, vice president of Direct Media International. Hansen does list brokerage and some list management work.
His focus has always been international lists. He came into the list business in 1980 working for Dillon Agnew & Marton, brokering lists primarily for publishing clients marketing overseas.
After the firm was acquired in 1993 and became the international division of Direct Media Inc., Hansen left to pursue an acting career for several years.
“I played in a few off-Broadway shows, bit parts on TV and I performed at the Fringe Festival in Scotland,” he says.
Hansen was ready for financial security years later, when a former colleague from Dillon Agnew & Marton phoned and offered him a job at Direct Media.
He began doing list brokerage again in Jan. 2001. “I rejoined the same team I was with back in 1980,” he says.
Hansen works with clients such Harvard Business Review and Forbes magazine, planning list strategies for campaigns worldwide. For the most part he deals with postal response files.
“I really like brokerage because it’s very mathematical and I have a background in accounting,” he says. “I’m a person who loves doing Suduko puzzles.”
Besides his direct marketing work, Hansen volunteers for various AIDS and HIV organizations.
What markets are emerging for international lists?
“BRIC
