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Steve Wellman is Director of Ad Sales for USA TODAY, the Nation's Largest Newspaper. He manages a staff of six and has been with USA TODAY since 1993.
Steve has been associated with newspaper his entire life. His first newspaper sales job actually started at his high school newspaper, the Elk Grove Guardian, Elk Grove Village, Illinois. He then transferred this experience to Southern Illinois University, where he would eventually sell ads for The Daily Egyptian while pursing a double major in Journalism and Speech Communication.
In 1981, Steve graduated from SIU and in short time left the rust belt of the mid-west to try his luck in Dallas. As expected, he landed an advertising sales job at the Dallas Times Herald and found himself in the middle of an exciting newspaper war. After much success, he was promoted to sales manager in the retail advertising sales department.
Steve gained national newspaper sales experience between 1987-1993 as a national sales executive at Newspapers First, and national newspaper rep firm. In was during this time that Steve became a member of the Dallas Ad League.
In 2000, Steve became active with the sponsorship committee of the Dallas Ad League, chaired by Dennis D'Amico at that time. The next year he became a board member, taking on Sponsorship Sales, and eventually becoming an officer. During his time on the board, Steve was responsible for creating and launching two of the DAL's most consistently profitable and fun events: The Volleyball Tournament and the All Fools Golf Tournament. He also chaired sponsorship efforts for ADDY's, served on the AdRoast Sponsorship Committee, and in 2004, he Co-Chaired the AAF National Conference hosted by the DAL. This National Conference was recognized as the largest in AAF history and brought considerable recognition, praise, and revenues to the DAL. During this conference Steve managed and produced the DAL hosted evening event, a golf tournament, sponsorship sales, and much of the content of the three day conference.
Immediately after this event, Steve became the DAL President. During Steve's term as DAL President, he presided over a very ambitious board that launched a new website, created a new DAL logo, launched a new membership pricing structure to reach out to a younger audience, conducted a research study, and in the process won three National AAF Club Achievement Awards for Education, Programming, and Club Management. In his final year on the board in 2006, Steve was Co-Chair of the Larry Spiegel AdRoast. This roast was the most successful event in the history of the DAL, with over 1100 in attendance, and over $200,000 in gross sales, with net proceeds going to the Dallas Ad League Foundation and the DREAM Fund.
He and other DAL Past Presidents are now involved with DAL Foundation campaign to raise $1 million in celebration of the DAL Centennial Celebration in 2008. He resides with his wife Pam and two children, Brian and Kylie, in Carrollton, Texas.
