When interviewing for my first agency job, someone said to me “You know it’s direct, not general?” I didn’t even know what they were talking about. And that’s how my love of OEs, response rates and data all began. 

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The internet came along and changed advertising forever. For me, digital and data were made for each other — and for me. I made the leap into digital while keeping my direct roots, eventually creating integrated campaigns across TV, digital, social, CRM and everything in between. I got pretty damn good at helping clients acquire customers and keep them, while building their brands at the same time. And I’ve taken on a leadership role inspiring my teams to do the same.

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​In 2012, Grey came to me to help turn their traditional creative department into something... not so traditional. I partnered with ECDs and strategy to develop creative platforms that worked across channels, then built a team specializing in OLA, email, CRM, social and UX/UI. I also helped create Grey’s UX discipline and led the agency’s first digital-only and CRM new-business wins. My team became an essential part of the agency’s biggest businesses and earned a reputation as the “Gold Standard” for social.​​

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After more than 20 years of agency life, I did something crazy in 2019: I went client side, running Consumer Bank at Capital One. I took on the challenge of transforming a fractured creative organization, rebuilding the team, establishing new partnerships and processes, and proving that an agency person could actually survive on the other side. The work was recognized by senior leadership and the model was rolled out across the organization. We also surpassed our business goals. Not too bad for an agency person.

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In 2022, I went back to agency life at R/GA, where I’ve led creative for global brands, as well as global creative teams across the US, South America, Europe and Asia. I’ve taken on everything from JPMC’s lifecycle ecosystem to Peloton’s AI-powered global launch, PayPal’s email transformation and Samsung’s global mobile launches — scaling teams, systems and hundreds of assets across markets along the way. It’s been a great next chapter: bigger brands, bigger teams, more countries and somehow even more email.

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And after all this time, all these clients, from agency to in-house and back again, one thing hasn’t changed – I still heart direct.