RESTON, VA/FORT LEE, NJ (TLC News) — The Ten Leaders Cooperative, the nation’s original promotional cooperative for experienced professionals, celebrates its tenth anniversary next month, Director Stephen E. Clark announced.

“We knew back in 2002 we’d created an important platform for our members,” said Clark this week, “but the evolution of the marketplace — principally the growth of online search — really defined our role and spurred our growth.”

Clark, a former newspaper publisher and Wall Street financial writer, founded The Cooperative in February 2002. He added that “our members are the reason we’ve been successful.”

The first group, The Ten Leaders of Matrimonial & Divorce Law of Northern New Jersey, was researched in the Spring and Summer 2002 and announced in The New York Times in September of that year. Since then hundreds of groups in the law, medicine and finance have been researched and developed, and more than 800 of the cooperative’s 5,000 inducted members have chosen active membership.

Active membership, proceeds of which sustain and grow the cooperative, involves the development of Ten Leaders materials, including a Ten Leaders profile, which are distributed in print and online for as long the professional practices and remains in good standing in his or her profession.  Ten Leaders profiles are widely regarded as by far the highest quality personal online presentation of an experienced professional today.

Ongoing cooperative advertising campaigns of members and groups of members regularly appear in major metro publications, such as New York Magazine, Washingtonian and Philadelphia Magazine. Online campaigns on Facebook, Google AdWords and major news sites are regularly undertaken for active members as well.

The Ten Leaders Cooperative has profiled experienced professionals throughout the US, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Washington and Atlanta.  Their profiles can be found at TenLeaders.org, TenLeaders.com and related sites, including such domains as LeadingDivorceAttorneys.com and LeadersInPlasticSurgery.com.

The Ten Leaders Cooperative has been recognized as one of the most authoritative and cost-effective marketing solutions for qualifying professionals since the dawn of the digital age.

The Ten Leaders Cooperative is a unit of Newbridge Media LLC, which separately operates Digital Press International, an independent news service whose feature articles are distributed online. Both units are based at the American Press Institute Building, Reston, VA.

For more information about the Cooperative contact Kristin Kahl, 703-391-6833.