The
trade group which represents direct & multichannel retailers ,and which rebranded as Direct Commerce Association earlier this
year,has made two key appointments to
its newly announced Executive Board.
Alex Pratt OBE is CEO of Serious Brands and becomes the
group’s newExecutive Chairman, with Mark
Wilby,IT Director of Nauticalia taking up the post of Deputy
Executive Chairman. They each represent a business which trades via multiple
channels, direct to consumers, and wholesale to trade customers and share a
deep appreciation of the challenges faced by sector businesses, as well as the
growing opportunities open to them. These
new appointments are effective from 10th November 2014 to allow for
a smooth transition from the existing Advisory Board structure to the new
Council based organisation.
“This is a
very positive development. Mark Wilby
has been a stalwart of the Association for many years and has a clear
understanding of what the membership wants from DCA. Alex Pratt has also been actively engaged in
supporting DCA’s position on the key issues for as long as I can remember,”
commented Nigel Swabey, one of the
original founders of the trade group. He
added “As a member of the Advisory Board,
Alex has been a particularly active and
effective contributor of late. We are
lucky to have such seasoned professionals assuming the two key roles in the
Direct Commerce Association. I wish them both every success in their new roles.”
The DCA
completes its re-launch in January 2015 when it will unveil a new website
together with five new Councils, each
representing the channels deployed by member companies.
These Councils are Catalogue & Print, Digital,
Multichannel, Store & TV. Each Council will be led by two co-Chairs, who between them
will identify member needs and work with the Executive Board and secretariat to
develop high quality supporting services, events,insight, and content, to assist member company personnel of all
disciplines and at all levels to achieve their goals. Elections for these Co-Chair posts commence this
month, with results expected to be announced early in December.
With the new
Councils in place, the DCA will embark
on a programme of ongoing development, expanding its membership, and growing the value of its services to all member companies.
The current
Chairman of the Direct Commerce Association John Norton, who is Head of Retail
for the Royal British Legion,will
officially retire from his DCA Board
role at the end of 2014 together with the current elected members of the
Advisory Board.He said “ I am very pleased that Alex abnd
Mark have agreed to take up the new positions of Executive Chairman and Deputy
ExecutiveChairman respectively.I have full confidence that they and the new
Councils will head the Direct Commerce Association into the next exciting
chapter and will be looking for ways to add great value and business
inspiration for all members.”
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