Board of Directors - Women in Direct Marketing International

Akua Apea, President

Chicago Tribune - aapea@tribune.com

Akua Apea is a seasoned direct marketing professional with more than fifteen years of experience in the industry. In her current role as Development Manager for the Chicago Tribune community relations department, she is responsible for Chicago Tribune Holiday Giving, a campaign of Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Tribune Foundation Fund. In this role, Akua leads a team of development professionals in the planning and implementation of this campaign. In addition, Akua manages the direction and strategic planning of the annual giving campaign and other fundraising initiatives, including charity event partnerships, pledge agreements, Chicago Tribune Charities fundraising events and the McCormick Tribune Foundations United Partners Campaign. In addition, she promotes the company's brand image through newspaper ads, online and television appeals to gain more visibility for the department and charity.

Prior to the Chicago Tribune, Akua was a Project Manager at Draft, where she worked on the Allegra Pharmaceuticals account. In this role, she successfully designed, implemented and managed the operational infrastructure to support all direct marketing programs for the drug.

Akua began her career as a circulation manager at Talcott Communications Company where she served as manager for several publications.

Mary Manade, President-Elect

CommDirect, Inc. - mmanade@commdirectinc.com

Mary Manade had been in the direct mail business for over 15 years having owned and operated her own full-service production company, CommDirect, Inc., which she started in November of 1992. Her company has been awarded woman-owned status by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and is certified nationally as a WBE. Mary has been a member of WDMI for the past seven years serving on the Executive Board for the past two years.

Kathy Schmitz, Vice President

Vertis Inc. - kschmitz@vertisinc.com

Kathy began her well rounded Direct Mail Career in the art department at Advo preparing the Missing Children postcards that we've all seen in our mailboxes. She moved to a sales support role at Continental Web Press. After spending 11 years in commercial web printing focused on Direct Mail, she felt compelled to learn more about the mailing aspect. Tribune Direct Marketing provided her seven years to hone her knowledge of the USPS. Recently Kathy moved to Vertis Inc. and took on the role of Client Service Manager for their Chicago Division. Direct Mail projects are a prime focus of Vertis' only Sheet Fed Facility.

Kathy is a long time member of WDMI and a member of the executive board for two years.

Erica Rivera, Secretary Treasurer

Thomas Townsend & Kent - erivera@ttandk.com

Margene Crawford, Executive Director

National Envelope Corp. - mcrawford@natenv.com

Laurie Nations, Past President

Draft - sl.nations@comcast.net

Since 1995, Laurie has worked at Draft Chicago, one of the largest direct marketing agencies in North America. During this time, a variety of complex businesses have come to rely on Laurie's understanding of the need to react thoughtfully to competitive pressures and changing consumer needs, to chart new courses, to migrate in new directions, and to embrace change - but to do so with due diligence so that quality never suffers.

Her focus on introducing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) best practices to a diverse client base has led to improved efficiency and effectiveness in the marketing efforts of numerous Fortune 500 clients.

In addition to working full-time and playing an active role in Chicago's direct marketing community, Laurie tries to spend as much time as possible with her husband and two young children.

Directors

Elizabeth Terry
Northwest Mailing Service

Holly Harle
Diamond Marketing Solutions

Amy Carroll
Tribune Direct Marketing

Melissa Multack-Lerner
Draft

Marge Lipuma-Helms
Dahlgrens Buckley Dement

Monica Sanches
Grey 2

Sydney Plant
DePaul