Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, for both consumer and business-to-business clients. She has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM, as well as two Internet startup companies. Ruth teaches graduate students at Columbia Business School, is past chair of the Business-to-Business Council of the DMA, and currently president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York. Crain’s BtoB magazine named Ruth one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing in 2002. She is the author of 2 business books: The DMA Lead Generation Handbook, and Trade Show and Event Marketing. Ruth serves as a director of Edmund Optics, Inc. She has studied marketing management at Harvard Business School and holds an MBA from Columbia University.