European Marketing Confederation (EMC), American Marketing Association (AMA) and Asia Pacific Marketing Federation (APMF) founded it in 1996. Latin American Marketing Federation (LAMFED) and Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM) - South Africa joined the initiative later.

The President of WMA is rotated among the founders. In the first three years, Rosann Spiro (AMA), Dinos Lambrinopoulus (EMC) and Michio Torii (APMF) were presidents of WMA. In the second round, Rosann Spiro and Dinos were presidents for the first two years. Hermawan Kartajaya representing APMF is the President of WMA for the period 2002 - 2003.