The database marketing consultants at Drake Direct average 20 years of experience in the management and usage of customer data in the corporate sector. This direct marketing agency located in New York has worked with some of the world's largest direct marketing firms. What uniquely sets this database marketing agency apart from the competition is their profound conviction to become intimate with their clients' existing business model and metrics and then compare those against the industry best practices and standards. The Drake Direct team has expertise in many areas of database marketing both on and off line.

Rhonda Knehans Drake founded the consulting firm in 1996 following more than 12 years in various information management roles. Rhonda's background includes experience in all aspects of direct marketing from conceptualization of strategy to test market design and implementation in roll-out. Rhonda's experience emphasizes the importance of leveraging information to make marketing decisions. This experience has enabled her to assess the most effective and efficient ways to improve marketing efforts for her clients.

Most recently, Rhonda was employed by The Reader's Digest Association as Director of Customer Database and List Management. At The Reader's Digest Association, Rhonda was a part of the management team which led the effort in developing a new strategic business aimed at marketing to young families with children. Rhonda's initial responsibility was to determine and manage the build of a stand alone customer database in support of this new business. Prior to this assignment, Rhonda was a senior account executive at Information Resources, Inc. In this role, Rhonda lead two of IRI's largest account teams: Clairol and Bristol Myers. Among Rhonda's key accomplishments while managing the syndicated market research for Clairol and Bristol Myers was supporting the client's marketing team with recommendations which ultimately reversed a decline in market share. As a result of this accomplishment, Rhonda was awarded the "President's Award" by IRI officers. Rhonda has also worked for Columbia House Music & Video Club, Citicorp POS and Arbitron Ratings.

In addition to consulting Rhonda is an Assistant Professor at New York University in the Master of Science in Direct Marketing Communications program teaching "Statistics for Direct Marketers." Among the topics Rhonda empahsizes in this course are proper sampling techniques and the various ways marketers should design and analyze marketing tests.

Rhonda earned a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Missouri. She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Club of New York and the American Statistical Association.

Perry D. Drake joined the consulting firm in April of 1998. Prior to this, Perry worked eleven years in a variety of roles at The Reader's Digest Association. This diversity of responsibilities has provided Perry with in-depth experience to share with clients.

Perry's initial position at The Reader's Digest Association was as a statistician in the quantitative analysis department, applying segmentation, response modeling, list assessment and multivariate techniques. Later, moving into a product line role as Associate Director of Magazine Circulation Marketing, Perry assumed full strategic responsibility for all acquisition efforts including mailings to house and outside lists as well as renewal and billing efforts. During this time, Perry was selected to play a major role on the "promotional process re-engineering committee" charged with re-designing the entire promotional campaign process. Next, Perry was chosen by upper management to assume the responsibility of creating a new marketing services division in preparation for the conversion to new marketing systems and procedures at The Reader's Digest Association. As Director of this new marketing services division, Perry was responsible for staff assessment, re-alignment of organizational structures for efficiencies, new job descriptions and re-training for a staff of 40 marketing database professionals in support of marketing efforts for the entire U.S. business.

In addition to consulting, Perry is an Assistant Professor at New York University in the Master of Science in Direct Marketing Communications program. Teaching "Statistics for Direct Marketers," "Database Modeling" and "Advanced Database Modeling," Perry received the distinction of being named the "Outstanding Master's Faculty" member for 1998-1999. NYU administrators award this honor to the faculty member who has performed at a level above and beyond the standard for quality by providing exceptional academic services to both the students and the program. Perry also lectures on testing and marketing financials for Western Connecticut State University's Interactive Direct Marketing Certificate Program.

Jointly with other faculty from Western Connecticut State University, Perry has also collaborated with the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF) to develop a model curriculum for universities pursuing the area of interactive and direct marketing.

Perry earned a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Missouri. He is a member of the Direct Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Club of New York and the American Statistical Association.

Stephen La Scala also joined the Drake Direct team in the summer of 2004 as a Marketing Operations & Analysis Consultant. Stephen is an accomplished Database professional with over thirty years experience transforming data into actionable information. He has designed, developed, and implemented Campaign Management, Fulfillment, and CRM systems for Fortune 500 companies in the consumer, financial services and retail industries.

Prior to joining Drake Direct Stephen was Director of Information Services for Gevalia, the direct to consumer division within Kraft Foods. A member of Gevalia’s Executive Team, he was responsible for all IT and Database Marketing activities. During his ten year tenure at Gevalia he implemented a marketing database that supported all campaign planning, execution, modeling and analysis activities; installed financial forecasting engines designed to maximize ROI on all media purchases; directed the implementation of Gevalia’s e-commerce and customer care web presence which created an incremental revenue stream, increasing retention and reducing customer service expenses; and successfully led the migration of data and business processes from one fulfillment vendor to another.

Prior to Gevalia, Stephen was Vice President Information Systems at Bankers Trust where he was responsible for implementing an MIS Infrastructure and reporting and inquiry environment. For Bankers Trust he also developed a model-based system used to adjust return on loans by factoring up the loan amount for its risk. Risk Adjusted Return on Capital (RAROC) was Bankers Trust’s single most important measure of profitability.

Stephen also spent seven years at JCPenney where he built models to forecast catalog demand and re-ordering patterns in an effort to reduce inventory, lost sales and back orders. For the Credit Division he successfully developed models to aid in the three key decision areas; accepting applicants, setting credit limits and prioritizing collection activities.

Stephen holds a Master of Science in Direct Marketing from New York University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from City College of New York.

Elena P. Clarizio joined the Drake Direct team during the summer of 2005 as an intern and then became a full time employee after receiving her BA in the field of Communications in May of 2006 from New York University. A former student of Perry Drake in his “Data Analytics” class, Elena earned a Professional Certificate in Marketing Research in conjunction with her degree.

During her short time at Drake Direct, Elena has become involved and expert in several areas inlcuding campaign managment, campaign post analysis, response modeling and market segmentation and sizing to name a few.

Irina Derkacheva joined Drake Direct in January 2007. Irina holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the Univerity of Maryland. She has extensive experience working the the sphere of data analysis.

Upon graduation from the University of Maryland, she worked as an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics where she participated in several data-intensive projects relating to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) program.

Irina also worked as a research analyst for a Washington economics consulting firm, Glassman-Oliver Economics Consultants. At Glassman-Oliver she was put in charge of locating support for Senior Economists' strategic advice and expert testimony by surveying case-related documents as well as analyzing marketing and statisticsal data using SAS and Excel to assess company performance.

Mandie Lee joined Drake Direct in December 2006, and has been involved with various analytical projects.

Currently, Mandie is a graduate student from New York University in the Direct and Interactive Marketing program. She has been an accomplished student in the program since she started in 2005 having received the Dean’s Graduate Fellowship and maintained it throughout her studies.

Prior to her enrollment at NYU, Mandie received an MBA from Rutgers with similarly impressive academic credentials, at Rutgers, Mandie was a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Mandie also had several years of marketing experience both in Taiwan and in US. Primarily, she worked as a product manager for a consumer product company.

Linlin Chai joined the Drake Direct team in November of 2006 as an intern. She is a senior graduate student in the Direct and Interactive Marketing program at New York University with an outstanding academic background. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from one of the top colleges in China. She was a former student of Perry Drake having taken “Statistical Measurements and Analysis” and “Database Mining and Modeling.”

Working as an assistant consultant in one of the biggest marketing consulting firms in China, she had two years working experience in various market analyses such as focus group studies, survey analysis, and online advertising quantity analysis.