The Direct Marketing Educational Foundation has created the John Flieder Fund in recognition of former DMEF board member John Flieder.
Flieder was a co-founder of The Callahan Group in 1995, where AIG was one of his main clients.
Prior to that, he spent 33 years at Allstate Corp., where he headed marketing support for the company’s sales forces. With the aid of Allstate’s ad agency, Leo Burnett Co., Flieder developed the first television and print ads showing a live person crashing unrestrained into a solid wall with only an airbag for protection. Those ads helped introduce a new era in automobile safety after automobile manufacturers realized consumers were willing to pay for safety.
Flieder also dedicated his career to providing educators and students leading-edge resources to ensure the perpetuation of talent and practices among tomorrow’s business leaders.
The fund is designed to recognize Flieder’s interest in education by providing access to the DMEF’s Professors’ Academy — an online, password protected area — where college and university teachers of direct and interactive marketing can find the educational resources. This will be one of many new elements included in the DMEF’s new Web site, will is scheduled to launch in August.
“Overwhelmed with admiration, I had the rare and poignant opportunity to conceptualize and finalize plans for this fund with John — a person whose unwavering hope will always remain a beacon,” said Allen W. Dyon, DMEF chairman and identified by Flieder as the executor of the fund.
For more information about the John Flieder Fund, visit www.the-dmef.org.
