There were lots of reasons to give Trish Wheaton this year’s Directors’ Choice Award. But the foremost one, according to Canadian Marketing Association president and CEO John Gustavson, is this: Wheaton has spent countless hours helping the CMA achieve its objectives this year – and has done so tirelessly.

Although the Directors’ Choice Award can be awarded to either an organization or an individual, the decision comes down to whether the person or group has made a contribution ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ in building the association, or the industry, or both, says Gustavson.

Wheaton, president of Impiric, one of Canada’s leading direct response and information-based marketing agencies, has been a member of the association since 1991. Over the past nine years, she has chaired the program committee of the CMA’s national convention and trade show, chaired the national convention and trade show as a whole, and is currently chair of the association’s strategic planning committee. She has also been a co-host of the RSVP Awards since 1996.

‘Impiric has been a consistent supporter of the association through the donation of time and talent, starting with [former president] Mona Goldstein, but certainly that has continued under Trish’s stewardship,’ Gustavson says. ‘It’s a huge amount of time that [Wheaton] has put into these efforts. And, above all, she has helped lead the evolution of what we do into the broader concepts of database, customer relationship, and integrated information-based marketing.

‘These contributions have not just been a matter of putting in time…they have made a real difference in defining the direction of the association,’ he says.