E. Jerome "Jerry" McCarthy passed away at his home in East Lansing, Michigan in 2015, and the marketing industry lost one of its pioneers. After earning a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, Dr. McCarthy joined the faculty at Notre Dame and became a Fellow in the prestigious Ford Foundation Program at Harvard. He spent most of his career at Michigan State University, gaining a reputation for working with passion and purpose. He received the AMA's Trailblazer Award in 1987 and was voted one of the top five leaders in marketing thought by marketing educators.


Dr. McCarthy was well known for his innovative teaching materials and texts, including Basic Marketing and Essentials of Marketing. He also introduced a marketing strategy planning framework, organizing marketing decisions around the "4Ps"—product, place, promotion, and price. As these approaches became the standard in other texts, Dr. McCarthy continued to innovate, including new materials in the digital realm.



William D. Perreault, Jr. is Kenan Professor of Business Emeritus at the University of North Carolina. He is the recipient of the two most prestigious awards in his field: the American Marketing Association Distinguished Educator Award and the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Educator Award. He was also selected for the Churchill Award. He was editor of the Journal of Marketing Research and has been on the review board of the Journal of Marketing and other journals as well.


Dr. Perreault has been recognized for innovations in marketing education, and at UNC he has received several awards for teaching excellence. His books include two other widely used texts: Basic Marketing and The Marketing Game! He is a past President of the American Marketing Association Academic Council, and he served as chair of an advisory committee to the U.S. Census Bureau and trustee of the Marketing Science Institute. He has also worked as a consultant to various organizations.


Joseph P. Cannon is a Dean's Distinguished Teaching Fellow and Professor of Marketing at Colorado State University. He has taught at many institutions, and he has received several teaching awards and the N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation. Dr. Cannon's research has been published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is a two-time recipient of the Louis W. and Rhona L. Stern Award for high-impact research on interorganizational issues. Dr. Cannon has served on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and others. The Journal of Marketing has honored Dr. Cannon with several distinguished reviewer awards. He served as chair of the American Marketing Association’s Interorganizational Special Interest Group (IOSIG). Before entering academics, Dr. Cannon worked in sales and marketing for Eastman Kodak Company.