Who is behind Catalog Choice?

Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox. Use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.

The organizations

Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, the Kendeda Fund, the Weeden Foundation and the Mead Foundation.

Our mission

The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unwanted catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice Mail Preference Service to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate their mail preference for catalogs, and sign up for Email news, and businesses can receive the lists in a secure manner so that they can efficiently honor the requests.

The team

Chuck Teller

Starting in 2006, Chuck developed the plans for Catalog Choice in association with his funding partners. Under Chuck's guidance, Catalog Choice has grown from an idea to its current state with over one million consumer members and hundreds of merchant members. Chuck works closely with his team to steadily improve the service for both consumers and companies. In addition to all the day-to-day stuff, Chuck focuses on developing new ways to use technology to encourage more sustainable business practices.

Chuck's background is in business software, economics and entrepreneurship. From 1997 to 2000, he ran the analytic software company, Advance Planning Solutions. From 2000 to 2004, he ran the analytics product line at PeopleSoft, a leading business software company. Prior to his software career, Chuck spent 10 years as a real estate economist helping public and private clients develop livable urban environments. Chuck also runs Realius.com, a prediction market service designed for real estate and Wordcountjournal.com, an online journal writing service. Chuck holds a B.S. from University of California and a Master's degree in Urban Planning from University of North Carolina.

April Smith

April joined the Catalog Choice team prior to the service's public launch in 2007. April's primary focus is developing a strong working relationship with the catalog merchant community to ensure widespread adoption and improvement of the service. April also works closely with the trade and consumer press to inform the public and merchants alike about Catalog Choice and its benefits.

April has more than twenty years experience with project management, strategic planning, communications, and nonprofit organizational development. Prior to joining Catalog Choice, April worked for the National Wildlife Federation and as a project manager for ICF International, a management-consulting firm based in Washington, DC. Over the years, April has provided services for a diversity of projects, including corporate environmental stewardship, green building, climate change education, renewable energy, and natural resources conservation. She holds a B.A. from the University of Vermont and a Master's degree in Urban Planning and Environmental Policy from UCLA. April is known as one of the founders of the campus greening movement and is the author of the book Campus Ecology: A Guide to Assessing Environmental Quality and Creating Strategies for Change.

Jill McCleary

Jill joined Catalog Choice after being an avid consumer member. She works with the team on product development, design and customer service.

While she once planned to be an archaeologist, her actual experience includes working as a Product Manager at Morningstar, Inc. where she managed software products for financial professionals and running her own freelance illustration business. Jill holds a B.A. in Art History and French from University of Pennsylvania.

Jen Fortier

Jen Fortier joined the Catalog Choice in 2008. She runs our customer service outreach. She helps our merchant members use the service to reduce unwanted mail. She also helps our consumer members understand and best utilize the service. If you Contact Us from the site, Jen is often the one who will answer your questions.

Jen resides in Vermont with her two daughters. She came to Catalog Choice with 20 years of service and management experience in the restaurant industry and two years of volunteering in the local school's Environmental Learning Program for the Future. Jen's love of nature, hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, running, gardening and the belief that we can all take steps to help save natural resources keeps her motivated to work hard for the success of Catalog Choice.

Tim Murphy

Tim has a basket in which his wife dumps all of his mail. It fills up quickly. He hopes to one day permanently empty the basket and truly go paperless. To promote a paperless future for his kids, he directs the design and development of Catalog Choice with a bunch of talented people.

Along with Chuck, Tim also runs www.realius.com, the real estate prediction market. Prior to these entrepreneurial adventures, Tim held senior product and service design positions for enterprise software companies SAP and PeopleSoft.

Help spread the word

The collective positive impact that the Catalog Choice community has on the environment is directly related to the number of people using the service. You can help spread the word, by displaying one of our linked badges on your own website or blog. Just click the color you like best and use the HTML clipping:

Catalog Choice Endorsements

The following nonprofit groups, businesses, government agencies, and consumer and environmental leaders are showing their support for Catalog Choice and our mission to promote sustainable industry best practices.

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