About Charles Prescott
Born and raised in Potsdam, NY, very close to Montreal and Ottawa in Canada, I grew up with an early awareness of the joys and frustrations of international travel, work and experience. I graduated from Hamilton College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1969, having spent 1967-68 “in the revolution” in France as a philosophy and art history student. From 1969 to 1971 I taught English as a second language at Tunghai University in Taiwan and began there my study of Mandarin. I speak French well, and am conversational in Mandarin and Japanese.
Since graduating from Harvard Law School cum laude in 1974, my career has focused on international corporate, securities, 
finance, and new country development law and projects. From 1974 to 1977, I worked in Tokyo with the law firm of Hamada & Matsumoto and studied Japanese.
From 1977 to 1979 I worked in corporate transactions and litigation in the New York office of Cleary Gottlied Steen & Hamilton and thereafter as in-house corporate counsel with privately-owned Continental Grain Company and publicly-listed The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
From 1998 to 2008 I served as Vice President, Global Development at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) of the United States, where I represented the industry in Washington, DC as an adviser to the Department of Commerce, served on the Board of Directors of the Federation of European Direct Marketing Associations in Brussels, wrote and published a monthly newsletter and an international privacy compliance manual, managed direct marketing education programs, and organized and led trade missions to Europe and China. I was elected to the Board of Directors of the DMA in October 2010 and chair the Governance Committee.
Since 1992 I have been deeply involved in privacy and data protection legal developments world-wide. Since 2000, I have also been engaged in international postal issues, and from 2004 until October 2012 I was Chairman of the Consultative Committee of the Universal Postal Union. I am an internationalist.
I have three specialties.
1. I am a seasoned and experienced association executive who is committed to helping members build their businesses and to the constant imperative of change – strategic, technological, and political. Through service as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing and frequent interaction with association leaders world-wide, I have gained an understanding of association environments and trends around the world.
In late 2010 I founded the Global Address Data Association (GADA) whose mission is to represent the data using community before postal systems and other database developers specifically with respect to data used for delivering messages and products to individuals. For more information please visit the association website: www.globaladdress.org. Through this work and my participation in work groups at the Universal Postal Union, I have become an advocate for address system development in emerging countries, another of the goals of GADA.
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2. I am a student of data protection, consumer protection and postal legislation and marketing trends world-wide. I research, report, and advise on these evolutions. I serve on the Federal Advisory Committee to the US State Department on international mail issues and since 1998 have represented first marketers and subsequently envelope manufacturers and the hybrid mail industry at the Universal Postal Union.
3. I am admitted to practice law in California and New York and specialize in advising on privacy, marketing and postal legislation and business globally and representing companies and organizations before US government and international bodies such as the US Department of Commerce, the State Department, the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, the European Commission, and the Universal Postal Union. In representing companies and individuals in commercial transactions and conflict resolution, I believe in and practice collaborative shared-benefit negotiated outcomes.
I am a frequent speaker around the world on direct and interactive marketing developments, postal matters, and privacy and data protection and assist companies in identifying partners and resources internationally.
I am available for consultation and advice to help you build your business or resolve a current problem and may be reached at +1.914.533.0208 or by email to chaspres@optonline.net.
