The marketing industry is constantly in flux – perhaps that’s never been more evident than today, with marketing paradigms and technologies evolving at light speed. Seems only fitting then that this year’s lifetime achievement award goes to a man who has constantly reinvented himself to reflect and embrace those changes – and in doing so, has become a trailblazer in the direct marketing community, as well as in the broader marketing arena.

Hugh Furneaux’s 35-year professional life spans several disciplines, from teaching, to publishing and e-marketing. He shifted from education to business in the seventies, joining McGraw-Hill Ryerson and Copp Clark Pitman. During the next decade, he became president of Hume Publishing, whose flagship products include ‘Successful Investing and Money management’ and ‘The MoneyLetter.’ It was here that Furneaux won several RSVP awards for innovative oversize consumer direct mail packages and breakthrough uses of newspaper freestanding inserts.

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Furneaux transformed his career yet again in the late eighties when he founded Ariad Custom Publishing (named for daughters Arielle and Adrienne). Focusing on corporate newsletters, the company grew in size and revenue, counting several of Canada’s largest banks and two of its largest mutual fund companies among its clients. Then, two-and-a-half years ago, Furneaux broadened Ariad’s focus, renaming it Ariad Custom Communications and transforming it to include an e-marketing division. This fiscal year, the company recorded unprecedented revenues.

Furneaux’s commitment and passion for the industry also manifested itself in his support of the CDMA and CMA – he served a nine-year term on the Board of Directors and chaired the Board in the mid-nineties. In 1997, he was inducted as an Honorary Life Member of the Association.

‘This [tribute] is about his successes, but also for contributing to marketing techniques,’ commends Judy Elder, chair of the CMA Board and GM, Consumer Group, Microsoft Canada. ‘He is somebody who keeps reinventing himself and his career, and every time he does, he makes a significant contribution to advancing marketing.’