Gerald Gould

Chairman

Gerald Gould is an example of people who start out with one career in mind, end up doing something entirely different, and find the unexpected extremely satisfying.

After college and grad school, where he majored in English, Gerald moved from his small upstate town to New York City to work in publishing and teach university courses.  But he was bored.  Now and again he had an itch to find more interesting and challenging work – he had no idea what it might be - until finally he answered a job ad in an industry he knew nothing about, direct mail marketing and mailing lists.

He soon realized he’d found the right niche. Being a list broker was unusually challenging and stimulating. Gerald was also inspired by the many small entrepreneurial businesses and nonprofits he encountered as clients (direct mail was not nearly as corporate then).  He decided to be entrepreneurial himself, and with his wife Barbara started Conrad Direct in the basement of their home in Englewood, NJ.

Success came slowly, but with an enduring commitment to the highest quality list intelligence and delivery, putting the client’s perspective first, and working 18-hour days for the first few years, Conrad Direct survived and eventually flourished.  Little did Gerald know he was building a solid foundation for a business that would be one of the few surviving list companies forty years later, and largely because of the fine work of people he hired and trained. Gerald is extremely proud of the Conrad staff and what the company has become.