Alfred Seaman is the founder and chairman emeritus of The Advertising Educational Foundation. He retired as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of SSC&B Inc. now Ammirati Puris Lintas, and a director and member of the executive committee of The Interpublic Group of Companies.
Following a long period as director of the Advertising Council, he was made honorary director, joining a small group to be awarded that honor. As a former chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, he is a member of that organization¿s advisory council.
Seaman graduated from Columbia University. During WW II, he was lieutenant in the Navy and served as a CIC officer on aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Following the war, he came back to advertising. He joined Compton Advertising as a writer, became creative director and later, executive vice president. In 1959 he joined SSC&B, becoming president and CEO in 1960, a post he held until 1979 when he assumed the position of chairman and chief executive officer.
Seaman was a founding director of the National Advertising Review Board, another expression of his career-long interest in the creative improvement and self-regulation of advertising. His statement before that Federal Trade Commission entitled "The Power of Words," is considered by some to be a forceful position paper for the advertising industry.
For his work in advertising, communications, education and public service, Seaman was recently awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Long Island University.