Mark DiMassimo
Co-Chair

Mark DiMassimo is founder, chief executive officer and chief creative officer of New York City-based DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO), the full-service agency designed to build brands and businesses in a social world. Mark believes that agencies built on the assumptions of an advertising-driven world tend to underperform in today's socially-connected environment. DIGO aims to be the top to bottom solution for aggressive marketers.

After studying social sciences at Cornell University and Purchase College, telemarketing advertising specialties, taking a band on the road, and founding two successful companies, Mark went on to create pioneering digital, direct and interactive programs for blue chip clients, and led creative on some of the most successful launches of all time. He then jumped to a top creative position at a boutique hot-shop and in three years helped build it into a thriving mid-sized integrated powerhouse.

Launching with one employee in 1996, DiMassimo quickly became one of the fastest-growing agencies in the U.S. Working with visionary clients on innovative business models, the agency evolved a unique approach that reflects the world of the consumer while standing the priorities of the holding companies on their heads. At DIGO, every dollar is put to work building client business in a measurable way. One of the country’s top PR brains vets every campaign idea for story value.

Mark’s personal mantra is, “Keep using your powers for good.” He believes that the power to influence people through media comes with a responsibility to limit harm and to actively promote good. He makes passion for an organization’s mission a key criterion for selecting clients. DIGO also does extensive pro bono work, including award-winning campaigns, identities and innovations for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, The American Red Cross, the National Mental Health Association, and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s HealthCorps, among others.

Mark is also co-founder of Tappening, which promotes healthy and economical tap water and which has been credited with reversing a two-decades-long upward trend in bottled water sales. He serves on the board of Rare Conservation, and on both the Advisory Board and Creative Review Committee of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Mark is featured in the best-selling “Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs,” by Eric Yaverbaum. He is co-author of “Inside the Minds: INNOVATION” and “Branding as an Advertising Strategy” and is featured in the newly-released “Passion Brands,” by Kate Newlin, for which he also wrote the foreword. A familiar face on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and Fox, Mark is often quoted in the media.

Chris Becker

Chris Becker has spent 25 years building brands and creative cultures around the globe. No wonder his mantra is “Simple, Loud and Global.” As chairman and CCO of Draftfcb New York, he’s applied this philosophy to each discipline within the agency, rallying them all to push boundaries and defy expectations. Known for his commitment to the success of brands entrusted to the agency, Chris has always sought the best thinkers in the industry. Because, as he says, “creative excellence is not our goal, it is our obligation.”

Prior to the 2006 integration of Draft and FCB, Chris served as chairman and CCO of FCB New York, an 800+ person, multi-discipline agency. Under his leadership, FCB went on a new business winning streak. High profile accounts like Diet Coke, Motorola, MetLife, ONDCP, Gerber, the IRS and American Standard were added to the client roster. Chris recognized the value of Pharma clients for the agency. He pushed through award-winning work for clients Eli Lilly, Roche, Merck and Alcon. In 2005, FCB was named Pharma Agency of the Year at the PhAME Awards.

Chris demands all work be based on big ideas and strong platforms. It’s no accident that’s lead to iconic, award-winning campaigns like:
“Above the Influence” for the ONDCP
”Guarantees for the IF in Life” for MetLife
“ Milk’s Favorite Cookie” for Oreo
“Maybe It’s Too Comfortable” for American Standard
“Once You Go, You Know” for Jamaica
“Depression Hurts” for Eli Lilly

There isn’t a category he hasn’t worked in, or an award he hasn’t won: Cannes, Clio, One Show, Effie, Echo, NY Festival, ANDY, FIAP …

In 2008, Chris was honored to be selected as president of the Dubai Lynx jury. Philip Thomas, CEO Cannes Lions, aptly introduced Chris as “one of the most global creative minds with the deepest local sensitivity in the entire industry.”

Prior to joining FCB New York in 2001, Chris was the Latin American Regional CCO of Bozell (six countries). While based in Mexico City, Chris spent seven years helping Bozell become one of the fastest growing, most awarded agencies. Chris spent six intense years before that in Spain, at TAPSA Madrid, helping propel the agency to a #1 ranking, a position it kept for five consecutive years. Before TAPSA, Chris worked at Ogilvy & Mather in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Madrid. He began his career in 1982, as an art director at GGK, a Swiss agency.

Chris believes in “Creative Eclecticism,” where creative cultures are built on respect and diversity; where all disciplines thrive together in a collaborative, fluid way; where “the idea” is king.

Chris is fluent in English, Spanish and German and has used all three to say, “We have to become culture creators/curators in order to disrupt, innovate or attain any return in this highly connected, busy world. An idea without a return is nothing. A return without an idea is coincidence.”

Chris was elected as a participant in the IPG Leaders Forum in 2005. He serves on the boards of directors of the Partnership For A Drug Free America and the International Rescue Committee (www.theirc.org), a nonprofit organization founded by Albert Einstein. The IRC provides humanitarian aid to war refugees around the world. Chris’ responsibilities have taken him as far as Afghanistan, Liberia, DR Congo and Somalia.

Chris is an accomplished flamenco guitarist as well as a dedicated and creative contributor to Spain’s film industry. He is married and has lived in Manhattan since 2001.

“I make people, ideas and brands shine. That’s my mission.” – Chris Becker

Dave Moore

Dave Moore is EVP and executive creative director for McCann-Erickson New York. He directs the creative efforts for McCann New York client Applebee’s as well as McCann global clients Exxon Mobil, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, and the Bertolli brands of Unilever.

From 2000 to 2007, Dave was the chief creative officer of McCann Detroit. His Keep America Rolling campaign for GM in the wake of 9/11 “helped keep a recession from becoming a depression,” according to Forbes. His Tiger Trap series of webfilms starring Tiger Woods for Buick won one of the first Clios ever awarded for web content. And his Pure Michigan campaign for Michigan Tourism has just been named by Forbes as one of the ten best travel campaigns of all time.

Prior to Detroit, Dave was a group creative director at McCann New York, leading creative development for clients AT&T, Sprint, Motorola, Agilent Technologies and Sam Adams beer. His work has won virtually every national and international award in the industry, and two of his campaigns are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Tom Stein

Tom Stein is president, chief creative officer and a founding partner of Stein Rogan + Partners. Over the past 23 years, Tom has established Stein Rogan as one of the leading branding, integrated and interactive marketing agencies serving business-to-business, business-to-education and innovative consumer brands. In doing so, he has built the Agency into a multi-faceted practitioner of synchronized, multichannel marketing for brand leaders and challengers.

As the Agency’s chief creative officer, Tom is closely involved with Stein Rogan’s strategic and creative product – and works with all major accounts in the areas of brand vision, brand/creative development and marketing/business results.

In 2008, Tom was recognized for his career achievements and inducted into American Business Media’s CEBA Hall of Fame. The CEBA (Creative Excellence in Business Advertising) Hall of Fame was established in 1995 to honor the brilliance of business-to-business advertising.

Born toward the end of the age of “traditional” advertising and marketing, Stein Rogan, under Tom’s guidance, helped usher in the digital marketing age more than a decade ago, pioneering integrated offline and online techniques that only now have truly become mainstream.

In this regard, Tom has continued to add strategic, creative and tactical capabilities to the Agency, including marketing performance management systems, Web 2.0/social network marketing services, automated precision marketing and lead nurturing systems and other capabilities that continue to revolutionize marketing on a global level.

In 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, Tom was honored as one of the ten “Who’s Who in B2B Advertising” by BtoB magazine.

In 2005, Stein Rogan achieved one of the highest acknowledgements of excellence in B2B marketing: BtoB’s 2005 Agency of the Year designation.

In 2006, Stein Rogan’s work under Tom’s leadership was selected among the top four Business-to-Business Integrated Marketing Success Stories, and Stein Rogan was again ranked among the top “Agencies of the Year” by BtoB magazine.

In 2007, Stein Rogan received 15 Business Marketing Association ACE Awards and the APTA Best of Show award. And once again, Stein Rogan was ranked among the top “Agencies of the Year” by BtoB magazine.

In 2008, Stein Rogan was ranked among the top “Agencies of the Year” by BtoB and received nearly 20 major creative awards across the online and offline mix.

In 2009, BtoB named Stein Rogan the “#1 Agency of the Year” in the small agency size category. To date, the Agency has won nearly 20 major awards for its branding, integrated and interactive marketing excellence.

Additionally, Tom serves on the Business Marketing Association New York Chapter Board of Directors, as well as on the Board of Directors for Enterprise Media Group Holdings.

Tom’s two most significant achievements, however, are his starring role as bass player for Stein Rogan’s rock band, Cheaper Than Bowling, winner of two ad agency Battle of the Bands, along with his ability to help the Agency grow in the most dynamic time in ad agency history while also raising his eight-year-old twins.