email // 312.405.9176
Award-winning, executive-level creative leader who has taken some of the world’s most recognized brands and made them relevant to new audiences and successful to the bottom line. Deep experience in brand storytelling, including advertising, digital and social. Lead large creative teams to greatness, including creative directors, writers, art directors, designers, producers and content creators. Creative work has been recognized and awarded at Cannes, D&AD, Effies and One Show. Executive sponsor and tireless advocate for DE&I initiatives.
Experience
Havas
Executive Creative Director
Chicago, IL and Atlanta, GA (April 2015 – December 2022)
AdAge Best Place to Work 2021
Brands: Carl’s Jr., Coke, Metromile, Moen, New Biz, Sprite, vitaminwater
Set creative vision and POV at Havas’ Chicago and Atlanta locations
Led new biz pitches with $10 million in wins, including Bel global brands, Coca-Cola, Metromile and Yellowstone National Park
Campaign highlights include Yellowstone’s “The Inheritance Pass” (2-time Cannes Silver Lion winner); Moen’s “The New Gold Standard” and “#UnlockWaterForAll”; Coke’s “Refresh the Feed”; influencer Celeste Barber parodying Paris Hilton for Carl’s Jr.; the ingenious use of car horns for Metromile; and “Sprite Way,” a social initiative that gives the Black community a platform to drive authentic hip hop and fashion culture
Co-designed and creatively led the Social Center at The Coca-Cola Company, an innovative in-house agency servicing brands including Coke, Powerade, smartwater, Sprite and vitaminwater, among others
Grew it from $3 million to $10 million annual revenue in 5 years
Produced 2,000+ pieces of content annually
Oversaw 32MM+ brand fans and followers
Provided 24/7 alert monitoring for the organization, across 35 brands and 18 headwinds
Led the relaunch of @Coca-Cola in social media, redefining and dimensionalizing Coca-Cola as the “world’s most optimistic” brand
Executed in 25+ global markets, 49MM+ consumer engagements
Served as executive sponsor for Diversity Equity & Inclusion, overseeing initiatives like Annex Aware, Black at Work, It’s Okay Not to Be Okay (mental health focus) and LGBTQ+ programming
Twitter Next
Senior Brand Strategist
Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA (2014 – 2015)
Brands: BK, Best Buy, Cadillac, Domino’s, Lincoln, McDonald’s, Target, Wendy’s
Led the Auto, Dining and Retail verticals for Twitter’s idea lab, Next
Concepted and presented platform-centric ideas to Fortune 200 C-level suite, then partnered with their agencies to develop
Noted work includes emoji pizza ordering for Domino’s (Cannes Titanium); Tweet “social currency” for the Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume launch; and McDonald’s “Lovin’ the Super Bowl” tweet-a-thon promotion (Cannes Gold)
FCB Chicago
Vice President, Creative Director
Chicago, IL (2005 – 2013)
Brands: A1, DiGiorno Pizza, Jack Daniels, Jell-O, Kmart, MIller-Coors, Valspar
Led winning pitch for Valspar and served as creative lead
Authored winning idea for the $600M Walmart pitch
Creatively directed multiple Kraft brands
Highlights include Valspar’s “Cityscapes” poster series (Cannes, D&AD and One Show winner); Valspar’s “Talking Chameleons” campaign (Effies finalist); and “Meat Loaf serenades meat loaf” for A1
Ogilvy
VP, Creative Director
Chicago, IL (2003 – 2005)
Brands: Boeing, Motorola, P&G
Upshot
Copywriter to SVP, Creative Director
Chicago, IL (1996 – 2003)
Brands: Mastercard, Sony, dot.coms galore
Education
Knox College
B.A., Fiction Writing