How did you discover you wanted to work in advertising and what has been your career path to date? I was studying Natural Medicine and discovered that my creative side was being completely neglected. I decided to swap herbs for a Wacom and found a course that would teach me a thing or two about […]
DJ O'Neil
CEO / Creative Director Hub Strategy & Communication
Tell us about your career in advertising so far including what led you to start your own shop, Hub Strategy & Communication. The first job I had out of college was selling radio advertising for a big FM station in San Francisco. It was a 100% commission sales job, and after a couple of years […]
Balind Sieber
Digital Creative Director ATTIK
Give us a brief overview of your career and what first sparked your interest in advertising. Hello and thanks for having me as a guest. I started as an interactive designer before gradually amassing enough experience to consider myself a creative person. When digital matured as a medium, creatives had to choose specific disciplines like […]
Michael Ouweleen
SVP Executive Creative Director Cartoon Network
Your career at Cartoon Network began in 1996. Tell us how the company has evolved over the years and what some of the personal highlights have been along fthe way? I arrived at Cartoon right when it was clear that it wasn’t going away, but it was unclear how big it could be. So I’ve […]
Dave Tomkins
Creative Mother
What first attracted you to the advertising industry and how did you land your first role? Like many people in our business I have the usual stories of desperation to get in. I quit a good Design job to sit in my car till all hours, scribbling in a pad in front of the agency […]
Jackson Murphy & Graham MacInnes
Founders Pound & Grain
How did you come to form your dynamic creative partnership and what were your respective career backgrounds leading up to this point? Jackson: Over ten years ago, Graham sat down next to me one day at this online gambling start up we both found our way to. From then until now, we’re still sitting side […]
Chris Preston
EVP/Creative Director Preston Kelly
How did your career in advertising begin and what have been some of the most memorable moments? I put myself through Colorado University in Boulder cutting down trees for the Forest Service. Studying journalism, I found I was much better at making up the stories than reporting them. I nearly got thrown out of school […]
Myles Allpress
Senior Art Director Fallon
Tell us what kick started your career in the creative field. Quite simply: my mother. She’s a fine artist and illustrator. When I was growing up, our house was filled with her oil paintings and sculptures. I can’t count how many times I wanted to shower, but there was watercolor paper in the bathtub stretching […]
Kris Kiger
EVP, Managing Director, Visual Design, New York R/GA
How did you embark upon your career? I come from a creative family. My grandmother is a self-taught artist and my mother is a fiber artist in Arizona. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been focused on doing things creatively – painting, knitting, sewing, photography, drawing – and all of that led me down a path […]
Carolyn Hadlock
Principal, ECD Young & Laramore
How did you get to where you are today? In a crooked line. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in High School. I was a C student who barely made it into Indiana University. Once at IU, I declared a nursing major with a Chemistry minor – I figured […]
Conor Brady
Chief Creative Officer Critical Mass
You began your career creating covers at Random House. Talk us through these early days in publishing and explain how you made the move into advertising. We all wanted to do record covers and book covers back then ( I ended up doing both). It was the perfect place for a designer who also had an interest in image […]
Matt Batten
Chief Creative Officer Wunderman
Tell us about your background, how you got started in advertising and what have been some of the highlights. I like to tell people I got drunk in Colombia and awoke in a bathtub of ice with stitches where a kidney used to be and a note in my hand that read “You are now […]
Michael Sharp
Founder Standard Time
What’s your background and how did you come to set up your own shop, Standard Time? My background goes something like this: Undergrad in business administration and finance. First real job: Warner Bros. in New York City. I think I lasted almost a year, and it was like watching paint dry. I could not believe how boring […]
Carlos Alija & Laura Sampedro
Creative Directors Wieden & Kennedy London
What are your respective backgrounds. How did you get started in advertising? Carlos started as an art director but soon moved into words. Laura liked to watch people so her background is creative planning. When we met ten years ago, our roles as creative director and planning director started to blur and blend. Tell us […]
Camm Rowland & Matt Mulder
Executive Creative Directors Digital Kitchen
What have been your respective career journeys so far? CR: I came to DK as an intern during my senior year of college, and upon completion of my program, was excited to be hired as a Junior Creative. After gaining some great experience, I decided there would never be a better for me time to […]
Jerry Hoak & Ray Del Savio
Creative Directors Droga5
Can you talk a bit about your respective professional backgrounds including your current roles at Droga5? Jerry: I graduated from VCU in 2005 and spent the first four years of my career at Ogilvy, working mostly on IBM. In 2009, I moved from a 300 person creative department to the much leaner TAXI NY office […]
Golf Nuntawat
Executive Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand
Your impressive global career has included time spent at BBH London & Singapore, JWT Tokyo, Jung von Matt Hamburg, Walker Zurich, & Ogilvy Shanghai. How does the creative culture & environment of the agencies in these capitals compare to your experience at Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand? Different agencies have different ways of working. They each […]
Margaret Keene
Executive Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi LA
After spending 20 yrs at Chiat\Day, what prompted the move to Saatchi & Saatchi? It was really tough to leave. Every time I was itching to move, another great project came along, tempting me to stay. I also had a huge family there, both clients and co-workers, who loved and supported me over the years. It […]
Mike Caguin
Chief Creative Officer Colle+McVoy
How has your experience at other agencies influenced your creative leadership style at Colle+McVoy? We’re all in this together, whether it’s life or work, and I try my best to make every person I interact with feel respected. If more leaders created an environment of trust rather than fear, the work and retention would improve […]
Jean Batthany
Global Creative Director / SVP DDB Chicago
You have over 20 years experience creating award winning TV, Print, Digital & Social Media. Tell us about some of your career highlights. I feel very fortunate to do what I love every day. It’s hard to narrow it down but a few moments stand out, like winning my first Clio but missing my flight […]
Bengt R. Asplund III
Associate Creative Director DigitasLBi
Share your career journey with us. I came out of Graduate School in SF. Originally from Seattle; I attended Washington State University and was told to go to portfolio school by Alum Guy Seese who had become a successful Creative Director. He said the alternative was mowing the lawn of a local CD to pass […]
Paulina Reyes
Design Director Mother New York
What does your current role as Design Director at Mother NY broadly entail? The Design Director role at Mother is pretty broad and can vary from project to project as the range and scale of work we do is so wide. This is particularly because we are a design group within a larger creative agency […]
Kathy Delaney
Global Chief Creative Officer Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness
Tell us how you got started in the advertising industry and what some of the highlights from your highly distinguished career have been. I got my start as an assistant in the Creative Department of a gigantic agency known as SSC&B. I took classes at the School of Visual Arts at night and put together […]
Chris Lange & Michael Hart
Co-Founders & Creative Co-Chairs Mono
Tell us about your respective careers including how you came to co-found mono. Michael: Chris and I have a pretty rare history. We started our careers at a small agency in Minneapolis in the early 1990s and stayed together as a creative team with stops at Carmichael Lynch, Mullen and Fallon before founding mono with […]
Andrew Sirotnik
Co-founder & Chief Experience Officer Fluid
Talk us through your background in advertising including how you came to co-found Fluid Inc. I actually started my career in architecture. I was at Berkeley and had a girlfriend who hated her environmental design homework so I started doing it for her. The girlfriend didn’t last but I fell in love with designing spaces! […]
Jackie Anzaldi
Art Director DRAFTFCB
How did you get into advertising? I went to FIT for Advertising Design and upon graduation came to the hard realization that it was excruciatingly difficult to get a job at that time, especially sans a partner. So I got with a writer and we started working on our portfolio day and night. When we […]
Pablo del Campo
President / CEO Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi
How did your career in advertising begin and what have been some of the highlights? I began my career in 1989 as a writer and later on Creative Director at Casares Grey, having worked at Lautrec and Young & Rubicam – founding agencies of the creative movement in Argentina. In Casares I learned that it […]
Greg Smith
Chief Creative Officer The VIA Agency
How did you get your first big break in advertising and what have been some of the highlights so far? I’m not sure it was a “big break,” but when I was just getting out of college I was a struggling actor, and my agent threw me into an audition for a print campaign for […]
Dave Snyder
Executive Creative Director Firstborn
Tell us about your background in advertising. How did you get started and who gave you your first big break? Actually, I didn’t start in advertising. I started as a junior designer at a toy e-retailer that would later become KBToys.com and eToys.com. I resized graphics, not glamorous work at all, but I was happy to […]
Mark Lewis & Matt Fitch
Creative Team BBH
What first sparked your respective interest in advertising? ML: I was working a 9-5 in the civil service and one day thought to myself, “There has to be something better than this?” I had come into contact with advertising at a careers fair a few years earlier and thought why not pursue it further. MF: […]
Lincoln Bjorkman
Global Chief Creative Officer Wunderman
Congratulations on your recent appointment as global chief creative officer at Wunderman. You are no stranger to the agency; tell us what prompted the return. The single answer is a formidable global network, with a serious ass-kicking data capability. Wunderman is the world’s most connected agency and a place where I see great creative possibility. […]
Carlo Cavallone
Executive Creative Director 72andSunny Amsterdam
How did your career in advertising get started and what have been some of the key moments? I began working in advertising because I was obsessed with pop culture, film, and comics. I was working in Milan, Italy, as a comic book translator, publishing a trash culture fanzine and shooting very low-budget sci-fi shorts. A […]
Jared Isle
Associate Creative Director Draftfcb
How did your career in advertising begin? It started with my father. He worked for the same company I do now, in the 80s heyday. I grew up hearing the names Saatchi and Ogilvy on a regular basis. I was late to catching the ad bug. I was teaching English overseas when I launched an […]
Mat Zucker
Global Executive Creative Director Razorfish
Walk us through some of the highlights of your distinguished 20 year career. “Distinguished” makes me sound far taller + grayer than I am. But 20+ years has indeed been a full bag. Serving as a Cannes Lions Juror was a monumental highlight – incredible for the honor, the ego, and the experience debating great […]
Chris Graves
Chief Creative Officer Team One
Tell us about your career. How did you get your first big break and what are your current responsibilities as Chief Creative Officer of Team One? I can’t recall any classic “big break” moments. In my case, it might be more accurate to describe them as a series of great little breaks. The first one […]
Alexander Nowak & Feliks Richter
Art Director / Copywriter Droga5
Did you follow a traditional path to enter the advertising world? Tell us about some of the highlights so far… Aside from studying architecture (Alexander) and working as a windsurf instructor (Feliks),it’s been pretty traditional. We both went to Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg. We were in the same quarter and started working together as interns […]
Kinney Edwards & Chris Ferguson
Executive Creative Directors Tribal worldwide
What kick-started your respective careers in advertising? Tell us about some of the most thrilling moments. Chris: My interest in advertising was sparked by Alan Holliday, the co-founder and creative partner at Hill Holliday. He was a professor at Boston University long before it was popular to go to a graduate advertising program. I took […]
Chris Jones
Executive Creative Director Wunderman (China)
What attracted you to the world of advertising and how did you get your first big break? I actually studied Graphic Design and, to be honest, I was pretty much oblivious to advertising. I was sent for a work placement in a sales promotion company (they call it activation now) and they expected me to develop […]
Jim Haven
Chief creative officer / Founder Creature
You co-founded Creature in 2002 and are chief creative officer and managing partner. How did your career in advertising begin, and what circumstances led you to set up your own shop? Ironically, I am one of those people who needs structure even though I thrive on the edge of chaos and keep a messy desk. […]
Dan Shepelavy
Executive Creative Director Brownstein Group
Tell us about your professional background, how did you get started in the industry? I’ve been working by trade as a commercial artist since I left college. I spent the ‘90s out in Los Angeles working amongst the collapsing scenery of the pre-Napster music business. I started out as Barry Manilow’s one-man art department. That […]
Fabio Fernandes
CEO/ Creative Director F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi
At the age of 31, you opened your own agency, F/Nazca, in partnership with Saatchi & Saatchi. Tell us about this decision and the events that led up to this point in your career. To be very honest, this wasn’t planned; in fact, neither was my career. My professional life has been a sequence of […]
Gian Carlo Lanfranco & Rolando Cordova
Senior Creatives Fred & Farid
How did you come to form your creative partnership? We’ve been working together since our university days. At that point, everyone wanted to become a creative but as they began to analyze the Peruvian market they noticed that creative jobs were really undervalued: long hours of work and a little pay. So everyone quickly switched […]
Jérôme Gonfond
Art Director Leo Burnett
How did you become Art Director at Leo Burnett and what was your professional background in the lead up to this role? I started my career at McCann, then joined Andrea Stillacci’s team at JWT (current CEO of Herezie). After two years, Andrea asked me to follow him to Grey Paris, where I became deputy creative […]
Daniel Bonner
Global Chief Creative Officer Razorfish
Tell us about your career path to date. In your current role as Global Chief Creative Officer for Razorfish, what are your main responsibilities and how is the creative team structured? I began my career as a graphic designer in a design consultancy. In was 1996 and the advantage for me was my secret weapon, […]
Andrew McKechnie
Group Creative Director DDB NY
What has been your career path in advertising to date and how did you arrive at your current position as Group Creative Director DDB New York? I grew up in Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia and New Zealand. So moving around is almost second nature to me. Asia actually kicked-off my career after I decided to […]
Jim Bosiljevac
Group Creative Director DDB California
Tell us about your career including what prompted you to enter the world of advertising. I actually started out in college as a mechanical engineering major, despite the fact that I loved writing. It took me about three minutes to come to my senses. I had a buddy taking advertising classes, which seemed much cooler […]
Ron Lim
Creative Director ATTIK
How did your career begin and what led you to your current position as Creative Director for ATTIK? I actually went to ad school for four years as a copywriter. Back then we weren’t put into teams, so we did everything. After graduating, there wasn’t a ton of writer’s gigs, so I just changed my […]
Rich Greco
Head of Design Droga5
Talk us through your experience in the creative industry. What have been some of the highs and lows? A few months after graduation (high), I started working at a large agency (high). I stuck around for 3 years (low) as it got smaller and there were fewer than 10 creatives (high). Then I switched back to […]
Antonio Navas
Executive Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
Tell us about your background in the advertising world. How did your career begin and what does your current role as ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ broadly entail? Art is in my blood, I was a museum rat, my dad and I basically lived in museums. I always remember the first time Bosch came […]
Jose Molla
Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director La Comunidad
Advertising seems to run in your family with both your father and grandfather opening their own shops. What lessons did you learn about the industry from an early age? Yes, our grandfather opened one of the first and largest Argentinean Agencies in 1927, and it ran for more than 60 years. Our father also had […]
Jeremy Bernstein
Executive Vice President, Group Creative Director Deutsch NY
Have you always been interested in advertising? Tell us how your career began and what some of the highlights have been. I never intended get into advertising. I come from a family of scientists, so I wasn’t really even aware this could be a job growing up. I’ve always been equally interested in the art […]
Kevin Jordan
Group Creative Director Draftfcb
How did your career in advertising begin and what have been some of your most significant milestones so far? I think it goes back to deciding to go to art school instead of going down the typical 4-year college route. I’m sure I missed out on some things (like a crazier level of partying) but it was the […]
Rob Belgiovane
Executive Creative Director BWM
How did you get started in the advertising business and what are some of the key lessons you’ve learned along the way? I decided at 18 that advertising offered a good blend of creative disciplines from writing, to music and directing all the things I loved doing at school and with friends socially. It felt […]
Jeremy Jones & Dustin Tamilio
Creative Directors JWT Atlanta
Tell us about your respective professional backgrounds. How did you come to form your creative partnership? Our love affair began at Pyper Paul + Kenney, a small boutique shop in Tampa, FL. But it wasn’t all roses and peaches when we first met; in fact we both thought the other was a dick. It wasn’t […]
Evan Brown
Associate Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi
Tell us about your role as Associate Creative Director Saatchi & Saatchi. What are your main responsibilities and how is your team structured? It varies. When I first got to Saatchi I was put on a large project with a lot of teams of all levels working on it. Now I’m on a large project […]
Kristian Saliba
Digital Head of Art & Senior Creative The Monkeys
How did your career in the creative industry begin? I was lucky enough to earn a scholarship to study graphic design. My first job was in magazine publishing and the next was in a small creative agency where most of our clients were in the banking and insurance industries, the work was pretty dry but […]
Mara Serdans
Senior Art Producer Deutsch LA
As Senior Art Producer at advertising powerhouse Deutsch Inc, what are your main responsibilities? There are only three people in our department including myself, so I wear many hats and have the opportunity to work on different accounts. That said, I mainly produce photo shoots, manage illustration/CGI projects, search for stock imagery, re-license existing images, […]
Joe Calabrese
EVP, Director of Integrated Production Deutsch NY
Walk us through your background in the advertising industry and share a few career highlights with us. I started in Accounting, of all departments, at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York. It was my chance to get in the door, so I jumped on it… though it was probably the worst job in the agency. My job was to […]
Åsk 'Dabitch' Wäppling
Art Director / Founder AdLand
You are the force behind Adland, one of the most influential advertising blogs in the world. Tell us how you came to set up your own website back in 1996. Two cats were ad-related on the web back then, and you probably know them. Dave Dumanis wrote adlib every Friday, and Jeffrey Zeldman set up […]
Adrian Merz
Art Director Jung von Matt/Limmat
How would you describe the agency culture at Jung von Matt? Jung von Matt can be compared with a wild and crazy patchwork family; however in spite of this, the agency has clear structures, processes and hierarchies. This organized chaos is the breeding ground for unusual ideas and purposeful creations. However, most important are the […]