Brooklyn, New York, United States
Hi There, While getting a degree in Medicine, I discovered that looking at things from an unconventional perspective and acting on those insights was a tad more exciting than identifying the right heart tone. So I hung up my stethoscope and made some award winning work. Have a look. I’m not going anywhere but this industry. Not unless someone offers me a job as a professional whale hunter – hunter. Any takers? Until then, trying to give Good Deck™ in New York.
Co-owner of two delicious rums: one smooth blanco, and an award-winning one aged in rye barrels. Doing a steady 3X growth with an orchestration of the best partners. You can find us at Total Wine, Soho House, your local craft liquor store, a sexy rooftop bar or two, kinda everywhere in Puerto Rico - but also at Yankee Stadium and Jersey (if you are somehow inclined to go there).
Integrated strategy consultant for hire. Digital transformation. Change management. Business. Brand. Social. Comms. Quite a bit of experiential and some wild & wonderful creative briefs. A.k.a. Basically All Of The Strategy™. Client projects include - but are not limited to - LVMH, Samsung, Kimberly-Clark, Logitech, Gatorade, Snapchat, AB-Inbev, a pitch or 52, OKTA, MongoDB, the New Orleans PD, a lot of gaming related things, some Super Bowl shenanigans, and several entertainment projects for Disney+, HULU, and the "The Last of Us" & "Winning Time" for HBO. But also - and most importantly - the R2-D2 Instant pot. Did this with the wonderful people at Los York, JKR, Omnicom & The Actionists - among others.* The change management focus is on fixing organizational inertia & the design flaw called "Sustainability": I.e. how to stop wasting current money and future potential. Because the stakes are high - it's our collective welfare as a species and a $130 trillion opportunity. Occasionally teamed up with this guy before he started smashing it as a CCO - again http://www.hijeff.com/work (*Interim Head of Strategy at MediaMonks USA, Fred & Farid NYC & Pacific.co.)
Worked with the brilliant brains at Gale. Brand strategy, brand integration, and quite a bit of new business ($15M+ in new wins), while selling a burrito or two for Chipotle and tackling the future of dairy for MilkPEP and DMI. GALE became Ad-Age A-list #5 and breakthrough media agency of the year (because they truly do both). Got the job thanks to the brilliant Tressie Lieberman who brought me back to work on the Chipotle business. Resulting in finally winning a Sustained Success Effie for 3+ years of labour on Chipotle with all the best people. My mum still doesn't really care. But she says she is very happy for me.
I got to work with Laurent Leccia (and this Farid Mokart guy). How do you say no to that? Interim head of strategy for the NYC office. Set the new golden standard for cultural engagement for spirits in the LVMH portfolio. Won a couple of pitches including H&M & Amazon Luxury. Also lost a Super Bowl pitch because the client actually had not bought the airtime. But there was an important life-lesson in there. (2025 Update - Finally saw a "Ford" selling Stellantis Trucks in the Super Bowl. It had Harrison Ford, but the creatives at Fred & Farid would have made that ad better).
Group Strategy Director working on cultivating a better world through food (Chipotle), making things sticky (3M®) while cleaning up a mess or two (Scotch-Brite™). As interagency Team Lead for Chipotle, I had the joy of working with some of the best partners (GALE, RQ agency, Day One, Hunter Gather) in the business and make friends & Fantasy Football enemies for life. As an added bonus I got to work with the Veteran's Coalition for Vaccination, led by Team Rubicon. Results? Almost doubled Chipotle's stock despite having to close 2500+ restaurants, Chris Brandt became Adweek's top CMO, while simultaneously re-imagining the Scotch-Brite Brand. Laid the foundation for a Sustained Success Effie with Chipotle in 2023, got Chipotle in the Sustainability Lions at Cannes, and Webbies thanks to doing seemingly boring - but important & really, really, essential supply chain work. Our Farmlink partnership to feed people in need and help farmers out during the pandemic won a Congressional Medal of Freedom. But... Supporting Jake Wood, Art DelaCruz (and loads of others) to ensure 243,527,564 Americans get their shot? So we can share bowling shoes again? While getting a thumbs up from a few someones I really respect? And help end the 2020 Plague™? Beats all those paperweights.