SNCR Emeritus Fellows
Paul Benjou is a Senior Fellow and Advisory Board member of the Society for New Communications Research. Spanning a 28+ year career in media and agency management, Paul moved through the ranks of major agencies to include McCaffrey & McCall, Grey, Y&R, Ketchum MacLeod & Grove, FCB/Leber Katz Partners and IPG’s DraftWorldwide. At Leber Katz Partners, as SVP/Director of Media, Paul established and built a national broadcast network group while maintaining vigil over all media operations. His move to Doyle Graf Mabley expanded his responsibilities to EVP/Director of Media, Marketing and Administration. Blue chip clients at DGM included JP Morgan (Worldwide), Haagen Dazs, Swissair and Hilton International. In 1988 Paul founded Group One Communications, a media counseling group dedicated to an exclusive client base. Services included both traditional media reviews as well as migration planning into the interactive and digital arenas. The firm also conducted agency reviews and Change Management planning for direct media clients and the restructure of media operations. Paul managed Group One through 1998 when he joined DraftWorldwide. As SVP/Group Media Director and a member of the agency’s Executive Committee, Paul was the architect for the structure and launch of the direct agency’s Internet operations, and was focused on Business Process initiatives. As liaison with Interpublic Group’s (IPG) Corporate offices, Paul drove the agency’s digital interface with all IPG holdings. Paul has senior involvement with Process Management change across a wide spectrum of agency and marketing groups. At Mediaplex (2001), Paul’s responsibilities, as Director of Client Services, focused on management of the New York office and building the ValueClick (NASDAQ:VCLK) digital brands across direct clients, agencies and publishers. In 2006, Paul joined Universal McCann’s Digital Communications Practice as SVP/Global Digital Director, overseeing 70 + Johnson & Johnson agency brands. Paul has been on the Board of Global Networks, Inc. and remains as an advisor, is a member of numerous media groups including 212/NYC, Business Process Trends and has been a speaker at Myers Interactive Forums, the MPA, Media Marketing Week, The Financial Communications Society, an editorial advisor to MediaLife Magazine, and a visiting professor for Magazine Publishing and Strategic Alliances at New York University. Paul is a founding member of the One Hundred Club (OHC). He is frequently published and sought after by the trade press for commentary.
Colin Crawford is a Senior Fellow and Advisory Board member of the Society for New Communications Research. Mr. Crawford is a seasoned executive leader and accomplished entrepreneur with a track record of management success over 20 years in diverse international media businesses, including print, online and mobile properties. His responsibilities have included corporate strategy, developing, launching and running high growth, profitable media properties. He has transformed legacy print focused businesses into successful and profitable digital centric organizations by developing new digital revenue opportunities around advertising and performance-related revenue streams, including lead generation. He held a series of senior executive leadership roles at IDG from 1993 to 2008, and served on the IDG senior management team and the operations review boards of all the IDG brands. Mr. Crawford has extensive International experience, working with IDG business units in Europe and Asia. He was responsible for the development of several internal business development projects in addition to overseeing corporate M&A. These initiatives led to the launch of IDG Connect and a major shift in overall corporate strategy to focus the company away from print toward a more profitable digital centric future. Mr. Crawford has spoken at various industry events, and his achievements have been recognized with a number of industry awards including Folio 40 2007 – Director Level Doer and Folio 40 2006 – People to watch 2007. In his role as IDG’s digital strategist, he served on various industry committees including the Google Publisher Advisory Council.
Franz Dill is a Senior Fellow and Advisory Board member of the Society for New Communications Research. He has been an employee of Procter & Gamble for more than 26 years. He has a background in mathematics, working on a wide variety of modeling, supply chain, analysis, expertise and and social media applications. He blogs at The Eponymous Pickle.
Joseph Jaffe is a Senior Fellow and Advisory Board member of the Society for New Communications Research. One of the most sought-after consultants, speakers and thought leaders on new marketing, Mr. Jaffe is President and Chief Interuptor of crayon, a new marketing company. crayon is a mash-up of 5 key areas: strategic and creative agency services, consulting, M&A Advisory, thought leadership/custom publishing and training/education. He is the author of two books, “Life After The 30-Second Spot: Energize Your Brand With A Bold Mix Of Alternatives To Traditional Advertising” and “Join the Conversation.” Mr. Jaffe is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School and has lectured part-time at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Cornell’s Johnson School of Business and Syracuse University. Hailing from South Africa, Joseph lives with his wife and children in Westport, Connecticut. He blogs and podcasts at Jaffe Juice.
Richard Nacht is a Senior Fellow and Chair of the Education committee of the Society for New Communications Research. He is the founder and CEO of Blogging Systems Group. Richard has more than 20 years experience in the real estate, finance and technology development industries. Richard has focused his talents on creating e-commerce strategies aimed at producing technologies that benefit the consumer and businesses. Richard was a principal officer of a regional master franchise for a national real estate company in the mid 1980s which was sold to Commercial Credit. He founded one of the first online lending platforms in the late 1990s and took the operation from its original online birth to successful acquisition by a national lender in 2003. Richard then leveraged his online consumer and business to business marketing experience by founding Blogging Systems Group. Richard has led Blogging Systems as the leader in the rapidly growing area of corporate blogging by delivering a blogging platform that produces a low-cost, high results tool for effective communication and collaboration, competitive marketing, sales, and customer relations. He has been honored as a New Jersey Governor’s Cup for Entrepreneurial Excellence finalist and he was a member of the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2003. Richard is the co-author of Realty Blogging: Build your Brand and Outsmart Your Competition. Richard also writes a monthly column on blogging for RISMedia. He is also a member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE). Richard’s educational achievements include a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from New York Law School and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from New York University. He is a current doctoral candidate at the International School for Management in Paris, France.
Paavo Vasala is a Senior Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and a communications professional with more than 25 years of experience. He has worked as a public relations executive in corporation, journalist in radio and newspaper and as a manager of publishing house. He has founded his private public relations agency in Finland in 1984 being several years a partner in the WORLDCOM Public Relations Group, a global network of independent PR agencies. He founded in 1997 an Internet-based news release distribution company Pressi.com, which he sold to the Finnish News Agency in 2004. Since that Mr. Vasala is a founder and chairman of half a dozen new communications spin-off companies, which focus on news monitoring, news release disseminations, web media and software design for new communications. He also consults a few listed companies and cities in strategical development of new communications. He has been nominated as of PR executive of the year by The Finnish Association of Professional Communicators in 2000. Mr. Vasala is a Master of Science (Mass Communications) from the University of Tampere, Finland. He is currently doing research at the University of Oulu, Finland, for his Ph.D. His topic is “The Role of the World Wide Web in Corporate Communications. Experiences of Communications Managers.”
