About MAC

Montana Arts Council Members

Mark Kuipers

Mark A. Kuipers is president of MAK Direct, a direct response marketing firm in Missoula, MT specializing in planning, developing, implementing, and optimizing comprehensive direct marketing programs. Mark has written and produced hundreds of TV, magazine, and radio ads and managed media campaigns for many clients including Select Comfort (The Sleep Number Bed), Classmates.com, Invisalign, The Sharper Image, Fisher Investments, Bose, Bowflex, WebEx, HGTV, and dozens of other large and small consumer product companies.

From 1981 to 1987 Mark held a number of marketing positions with consumer and professional divisions of 3M including 4 years at Scientific Anglers where he was the editor of five fly fishing publications and the executive producer of fishing and hunting videos. In 1987 he joined NordicTrack as its first marketing professional responsible for all marketing functions. Since forming MAK Direct in 1990, Mark has focused exclusively on helping large and small clients market their products direct to the consumer using direct marketing techniques.

Mark earned his BA from Western Michigan University majoring in American Studies and Sociology and received a master's degree in English and an MBA from Washington State University.

Mark is married to Kathy J. Kuipers, a sociology professor at the University of Montana. They have two children. Keetje Kuipers, a Missoula poet, was recently awarded a two-year Stegner Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University. Their son, Jake, is an analyst with the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, D.C. An avid fly fisherman, Mark serves on the board of the West Slope Chapter of Trout Unlimited and enjoys bow hunting, skiing, hiking, mushroom hunting and writing non-fiction articles about his experiences. When he moved to Montana 5 years ago he knew our state had so much to offer the outdoorsman and was immediately impressed by the breadth and depth of the cultural and artistic life in Missoula and the entire state of Montana.

Term: 3/23/2009 – 2/1/2015