Unilever's Shaw, General Mills' Kermisch To Lead BAA's Board of Directors

Holbrook Becomes Chairman Emeritus

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 21, 2013

The Brand Activation Association (BAA), formerly the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA), has announced that Marc Shaw, Director of Shopper Marketing for Unilever North America, has been elected Chairman of the Board and Pam Kermisch, Integrated Communications Director, General Mills, has been elected the new Vice Chairman for the 2013 – 2015 term.

The current Chairman of the Board, Jim Holbrook, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Post Holdings, now becomes Chairman Emeritus. Shaw, Kermisch and Holbrook will play key leadership roles in helping transition the 102-year old organization from PMA into the BAA. They will also head-up a Board of Directors consisting of marketing executives from the leading global brands, ad agencies and law firms.

In his current role at Unilever, Shaw is responsible for Shopper Marketing and Process Excellence. He is also a member of the Marketing to Shoppers Leadership Team. Prior to joining Unilever, he had a broad range of marketing experience having worked for Ogilvy and Kraft/Nabisco on a variety of leading global brands.

In her current role at General Mills, Kermisch is responsible for developing integrated marketing campaigns for such brands as Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Wheaties. Prior to her current position, she worked on a variety of brands at General Mills ,including Yoplait, and held various marketing communications positions throughout the company.

As the Executive Vice President of Marketing at Post Holdings, Holbrook has responsibility for a number of well-known cereal brands. He began his career at Procter & Gamble and prior to that held a variety of executive positions at Ralston Purina. Before joining Post Holdings, Holbrook was CEO of EMAK Worldwide, a family of marketing agencies including Upshot, Equity Marketing, and Neighbor.

“We are very fortunate to have Marc, Pam and Jim leading the BAA Board during this critical transition period,” said Bonnie Carlson, BAA President and CEO. “It is appropriate that executives from companies representing some of the world's leading brands will oversee the Brand Activation Association becoming the leading resource for brand activation.”

The new Board of Directors will be introduced to the BAA membership at the BAA Annual Conference on April 2- 4 in Chicago, where the new name becomes official. With the theme of The Art and Science of Brand Activation, the BAA conference is designed to provide marketers responsible for brand activation strategies with information, tools and technologies they need to make their brands more successful.

“The new BAA will have a broader focus on all the disciplines required to activate brand strategy into consumer touch points, from creative concepts and insights to activation and measurement and on topics ranging from omni-channel marketing to experiential marketing and social media,“ Carlson added.

The conference program is available at http://www.pmalink.org/event/annual2013

About BAA
The Brand Activation Association (BAA) -- the newly rebranded Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) - is the national non-profit trade association dedicated to the industry of marketing disciplines that motivate behavior, activate response and build brands. Representing over $750 billion dollars in sales, brand activation disciplines include all the myriad connection points with the consumer, such as digital/mobile/social media marketing, shopper/retailer marketing, experiential marketing, marketing law, promotion marketing, multi-cultural and niche marketing, cause marketing, and sports, entertainment and sponsorship marketing. Founded in 1911, the PMA has championed this industry through its combination of research, education, advocacy, and collaboration opportunities. The organization's membership is comprised of Fortune 500 companies; top marketing agencies, law firms, retailers, service providers and academia, representing thousands of brands worldwide. The PMA is headquartered in New York City with its affiliate, the PMA Educational Foundation, Inc. For more information about PMA visit http://www.pmalink.org

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