I’ve always related to that description of

left brain/right brain people. Great creative

solutions come from a big juicy blend of

rigor and random, operations and theory,

capitalism and art. I am happiest when I

have one foot in each camp.

I started my career sharpening pencils and

reading manuscripts for a pretty famous

editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell back in

the 90s when publishing books still had

some intellectual glamour and people still

smoked in their offices. I was

professionally weaned on the truth only a

good story can provide and helped edit

several NYT bestselling books including

Fire in the Belly, if you remember the

men’s movement.

My advertising career began at a youth

marketing agency in Southern California

where I worked on action sports, fashion,

and beauty brands. Some of our work

became a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s

first book, and my thinking on SKYY

Vodka repositioned the brand from quirky

blue bottle to sexy bar call, growing the

business 20% every year I was there. I am

somewhat ashamed to admit that I was also

a cool hunter, scouring Shibuya and

nightclubs and record stores for cultural

trends and style archetypes. I developed

great instincts, good taste, and an

appreciation for the power of design and

craft.

I was hired by Ogilvy and Mather as a

planning director on Barbie and Motorola,

where I learned discipline and

intellectual rigor. I remember spending

three days locked away with the other

planners at a pre-renovation Algonquin,

emerging with mastery of every type of

quantitative research. I kept the other half

of my brain happy playing the role of

cultural insights expert on Motorola when

it dominated the handset market.

I spent the bulk of my career at Goodby

Silverstein and Partners, where I rose from

Planning Director to Deputy Director. We

won every new business pitch I

strategized, from Comcast to Doritos. I

developed a new brief and new way of

working as we merged media planning and

brand planning into one strategy group,

initiated by my symbolic invitation to

share my office with our media planning

director. We sat at the same little round

table from IKEA for two years. I ran

recruiting for the department, catalyzed

departmental culture and solidarity,

established myself as “able to rock the C-

Level,” and managed a team of 8 brilliant

planners many of whom I’ll never stop

trying to hire again.

At Saatchi & Saatchi I have turned over

60% of a 34 person department to create a

holistic group of comms planners, social

media babies, whipsmart analysts,

everyone digitally savvy and idea-driven.

I’ve taken a dated practice and introduced

and operationalized business analysis,

media creativity, better logic and

intellectual rigor, and tighter orchestration

with creative development. I’ve revamped

our approach to new business with my

partner and dear friend CCO, resulting in

our first wins in years. I’ve begun taking

our new way of working out to the global

network as the new prescribed S&S

approach. Most of all, I’ve become the

emotional mouthpiece of our New York

agency, sitting as a key member of the

management team with my personal goal

of making the work better, by making it a

better place to work.

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