Members, alumni and staff at the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing are mourning the loss of its co-founder and MD Professor Derek Holder, who passed away on Tuesday February 14th.

Professor Holder’s career in marketing began at Ford and British Airways. He went on to found what became Institute of Direct Marketing in 1981, creating the world’s first professional qualification in direct marketing. In the three decades since, he was the driving force of the institute, which to date has provided training for around 45,000 marketers, with 9000 marketers currently holding an IDM qualification.

He also recently presided over the organisation’s recent relaunch as the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing, embracing the transformation which marketing has undergone as a consequence of digitisation.

Lisa Turner, marketing director of the IDM, comments, “Derek has made a lasting contribution to the development of the profession in the modern era, and has influenced the careers of many, many individual practitioners. Derek’s passion for marketing education, from undergraduate studies through to continuing professional development, was infectious.”

Thoughts and memories of Derek can be posted via a

Facebook group

.