Aerial view of BIF exterior

21st Paul D. Converse
Marketing Symposium and Awards

May 2 - 4, 2024

2024 Paul D. Converse Award Recipients

The following distinguished individuals will be joining this illustrious group of marketing luminaries as the 2024 Paul D. Converse Awards:

Jennifer Aaker, winner of a 2024 Paul D. Converse Marketing Award

Jennifer Aaker
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Discussant: Angela Lee, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Jennifer Aaker is the General Atlantic Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dr. Aaker is a leading expert on how meaning and purpose shape the choices individuals make, how money and time and be used in ways that cultivate long-lasting happiness, and how technologies including artificial intelligence and mixed reality are redefining human interaction. Dr. Aaker is a widely cited behavioral scientist who has published nearly 50 articles in top peer-reviewed journals and has coauthored several books, including the award-winning The Dragonfly Effect. Dr. Angela Lee, the Mechthild Esser Nemmers Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, will moderate a discussion of Dr. Aaker’s research.

Greg Allenby, winner of a 2024 Paul D. Converse Marketing Award

Greg Allenby
Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University

Discussant: Sanghak Lee, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Greg Allenby is the Helen C. Kurtz Chair in Marketing at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. One of main drivers in the widespread adoption of Bayesian statistics in the field of marketing, Dr. Allenby is the author of two books and more than 110 publications that have appeared in leading journals in marketing, statistics, and economics; more than 50 of those articles have earned placement in consensus “A” journals. He is a fellow of the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science and the American Statistical Association. Dr. Sanghak Lee, assistant professor of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, will serve as the discussant for Dr. Allenby’s work.

About the Symposium

The 21st Paul D. Converse Marketing Symposium will recognize and celebrate the contributions of recipients of the 2024 Paul D. Converse Awards. 

Gies College of Business was a founding member of the American Marketing Association and housed the Association as it grew into the premier professional organization for marketers.

It is for this reason that the Converse Symposium is hosted every four years by the Department of Business Administration at the University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business in conjunction with the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Marketing Association. 

The symposium will feature presentations by award recipients and a discussion of the recipient’s contributions led by a discussant of the recipient’s choice.

About the Award

Established in 1946, the Paul D. Converse Award honors scholars who have contributed significantly to the theory of marketing and toward the advancement of science in marketing. 

This award is considered by many to be the highest honor in the discipline. Fortune Magazine described the recipients of these awards as being part of a “Marketing Hall of Fame.”  

Hotel Accommodations

We have reserved a block of rooms at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center for the Symposium attendees. You can reserve a room at the special conference rate of $229 per night at this booking link, where you can enter our block information. Please check your attendee email for more information.

About Paul D. Converse

Paul D. Converse, a longtime professor of business organization and operation at the University of Illinois, was one of the founding fathers in the field of marketing. He started teaching marketing in 1915 at the University of Pittsburgh and published one of the first widely distributed textbooks in the field in 1921. He joined the University of Illinois in 1924. Converse was general program chairman of the 1946 Pittsburgh convention, where – for the first time – a full meeting was devoted to the theory of marketing. His famous Journal of Marketing article titled “The Development of The Science of Marketing – An Exploratory Study” used the methodology that was to become the blueprint for selecting the Converse award recipients.

Picture of Paul D. Converse from University Archives

Symposium Co-Chairs

Ravi Mehta

Ravi Mehta
Professor of Business Administration
mehtar@illinois.edu

Maria Rodas

Maria Rodas
Assistant Professor of Business Administration

mrodas@illinois.edu

For additional symposium information, please contact our Symposium Coordinator, Maria Dorofeeva at dorofeev@illinois.edu