Martin Kent Levin

Martin Kent LEVIN Age 53; Loving Husband, Devoted Father and Business Executive. Marty Levin, advertising agency director, Microsoft executive, early Internet entrepreneur, active in Seattle's Jewish community, died March 25th at Swedish Memorial Hospital, Seattle, following a heroic seventeen-month struggle with multiple myeloma, a relatively rare cancer. He was 53. A "big city boy" with deep family roots in Chicago, Marty attended school and grew up in the Lincolnwood, Illinois neighborhood near the city. After graduating from Northwestern University with honors in 1974, Marty began a twenty-year career in advertising, in Chicago. As a young television commercial producer for Chicago's Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson, he achieved acclaim for creating more than 300 television commercials around the world for Kellogg's cereals, McDonnell Douglas aircraft, Schlitz Beer and other major advertisers. He traveled the globe for both agencies, and rose to the position of Senior Vice President and Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson. Marty arrived in Seattle in 1994 to join Microsoft, as Manager, Interactive Marketing, Broadband Media ITV. His advertising agency and creative background enabled him to rise quickly to Director, Advertising Business Unit, The Microsoft Network (MSN). He pioneered the initial advertising model for the launch of MSN and developed the sales force. Marty was then promoted to Director, Sponsored Programming MSN where he signed the largest web advertising (non-eCommerce) contract on the web at that time with client Unilever. In that position, he also developed strategic relationships with many other major clients. An energetic, entertaining and popular figure on Seattle's high-tech entrepreneurial scene for over a decade, Marty was one of the early evangelists of the Internet, and widely sought out for his advertising, marketing, sales and public relations skills. Among the many companies that he helped launch after leaving Microsoft in 1998 were Jupiter Media Metrix's AdRelevance, Rivals.com and Sightward. He also consulted for and invested in a number of other high-tech companies. A highly sought after dynamic speaker, Marty traveled the country passionately promoting his companies, and was considered an industry spokesperson and evangelist for e-commerce. His speaking engagements included serving as Lecturer at the prestigious Internet Marketing Conference held at Harvard Business School in 1995 and at the seminal New Media Conference, UCLA in 1997. He also published articles in numerous publications, including The Harvard Business Review and Wired Magazine. Close friend and attorney Michael Jay Brown described the widely held view of Marty Levin's passion for life: "Marty's ebullience, vitality, talent, optimism and love are not contained by his life. He was an unsurpassed repertoirist musically and personally, brilliant in everything he did - a scintillating and lovely man." An avid bicyclist, skier, musician and filmgoer, Marty's life was a constant search for new experiences, and he lived life to its fullest with his wife Debra and daughter Jenna. Religion also played a role in his life - he studied Judaism with close friends and worked actively to promote interfaith harmony. Marty's lifelong quest for new experiences began early on. Since early childhood and throughout adulthood he has performed as an actor and also worked as a photographer's model. Memorial Services are to be held at 1 p.m. this Sunday, March 27 at Temple De Hirsch Sinai, located at 3850 156th Avenue SE in Bellevue, Washington. Mr. Levin is survived by his wife Debra and daughter Jenna, of Sammamish, Washington, his sister Rhonda DeIslets, her husband Scott and their son Jordan of Orlando, Florida, and his sister-in-law Randy and her husband Steve Kraft and their children Brian and Josh of Gainesville, Florida. It is the family's wish that donations be made to: The Marty Levin Fund for Life, c/o Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 51 Locust Avenue, New Canaan, CT 06840.