Experience

The Distillery Project

FOUNDING PARTNER | Chicago | 2011-2020 

 
From two people to dozens, from local businesses to Fortune 500 companies, from filming a rooster crowing in my living room to producing Super Bowl and Golden Globes commercials, we built an ad agency from the ground up.

• Clients included Arrow Electronics, Athletico, Caterpillar, Lifeway Kefir, Kimberly-Clark, Meijer, RetailMeNot, Rooms To Go, Tegu and TropicSport.

• Fought for Women’s Rights alongside Carli Lloyd, cheered on a quadriplegic race car driver, and proved without a doubt that Santa Claus exists.

• Recognized by AdAge as a Small Agency of the Year, three times in 6 years.

Leo Burnett

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR | Chicago | 1998-2011        

 
Grew our clients’ businesses—and the careers of the people who worked on them with me, retained every account on which I worked, won more than my fair share of pitches, and met my future wife. 

• Clients included The American Experience, Beck’s, Cadillac, Cheez-It, Coca-Cola, Fila, Frosted Flakes, Hallmark, Kellogg, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Nutri-Grain, Polaroid, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, The Southern Center for Human Rights, Special K, Toys ‘R’ Us, The United Nations Foundation, and Youth Smoking Prevention. 

• Saved orphans, sold beer, made cheese talk, got Christopher Guest to laugh, helped NASA keep astronauts calm, invented the five-second commercial (sorry about that), won all the awards, and loved every minute of it.

Ogilvy

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR | NYC | 1994-1998

 
Mentored by and forever grateful to Steve Hayden, Chris Wall, and Susan Westre. Learned to listen. Learned to present. Learned to be humble. My partner and I served as the lead creative team on the IBM brand, which was awarded campaign of the year by Adweek for our “Blue Letterbox” work.

• Clients included the Ad Council, AIG, IBM, Jaguar, Kodak, and Lotus Notes.

• Prided myself in being there to turn on the lights each morning and being the last one to leave each night, started Thursday Night Drinking Club, shot dozens of commercials with Joe Pytka and lived to tell the tale.

Bates Backer Spielvogel

ART DIRECTOR | Oslo | 1993-1994

 
Cut my teeth in an office where 12% of my co-workers were also named Per.

• Clients included Artists Against AIDS, Audi, Tine Dairy, and VW.

• Learned to live without sunlight, be sarcastic in Norwegian, survive sub-zero camping (at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer), and to enjoy Aquavit.
  

Cornell University

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE | Ithaca | 1989-1993