Leonard L. Berry – Distinguished Marketing Educator & Mentor

Catching up on my Marketing News, I was excited to find the announcement of Dr. Leonard Berry being named the recipient of the 2007 AMA/Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. It’s the highest honor a marketing educator can receive based on his/her contributions to marketing education and the marketing discipline.

I’ve been privileged to learn so much from this man even though I never had him in a classroom. Len is one of my mentors from whom I’ve learned a lot about services marketing, service quality, leadership, and of course, internal marketing. In his classic 1991 book, Marketing Services, Len recognized employees as “the most powerful medium for conveying the brand to customers.”

A pioneer in the field of bank marketing (where I began my career) and service quality research (“When we improve quality of service, we improve quality of daily living … “), Len has been both generous and gracious in sharing his knowledge and work. His advice and support were also critical in helping me make the decision to launch Quality Service Marketing nearly 20 years ago.

Congratulations, Len, on a well-deserved honor. And thanks for all you’ve done for the marketing field, for the services industry, and for your students, including me.

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