Media IQ Founder Loses Blood Cancer Battle

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NEW YORK —  The world has lost “a wunderkind of the media advertising industry as soon as he entered it over 30 years ago.”


Michael Lolito, the founder and CEO of Media IQ (today known as MiQ), died on Monday (10/1) after a prolonged battle with lymphoma. He was 57 years old.

A 1982 graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., Lolito held a variety of roles at McCann Erickson and Benton & Bowles before becoming an executive at Ammirati Puris Lintas and, in 1999, President/COO of Initiative Media.

But, he is perhaps best known across the media buying and planning universe as the creator of Media IQ, which was founded in 2001 and acquired by Accenture in 2013.

Lolito is a 1995 American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement inductee; the honor recognizes outstanding leaders in the communication industry under the age of 40.

Lolito is survived by his wife Jennifer, and children Sophia, Mark, and Tom; his sister, Jody Lotito; brother Dean Lotito of Dunstable, Mass.; and a very large extended family across the U.S.

Services are scheduled for Thursday (10/4) at 6pm at Fourth Universalist Society at 160 Central Park West in New York.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Michael and Jennifer’s newly established non-profit organization – the JML Hope Foundation – are greatly appreciated. Checks can be made payable to the JML Hope Foundation and sent to 17 West 71st Street, Suite 5B, New York, NY 10023.