Schwartz to Be Honored as Leader of the Year

LOS ANGELES When the executive creative director at California's largest ad agency, Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day, receives the Los Angeles Advertising Agencies Association's Leader of the Year Award Feb. 23, he will join a line of succession recognized by those ahead of him."He reminds me of me," said TBWA\Worldwide chief creative officer Lee Clow of Rob Schwartz, the LAAAA's honoree. "He has so much desire. I know that he wakes up in the morning thinking about what we do here. That's requisite for this business. You have to be that intense and passionate to be a leader. Then you end up leading by example."Clow also praised Schwartz's generosity: "I remember when I started getting more responsibility at the agency. I sincerely took as much joy in the creative teams' wins as I did in my own. That's a unique characteristic of a leader. Rob wants everybody to succeed. He cares about the whole agency and the community, not just himself."LAAAA president Colleen Kelly, partner and director of new business at Interpublic Group's Deutsch/LA, said that was an essential component to the committee's selection of Schwartz. "Every year, we look at everyone, from general managers to media people, who have the biggest impact, not only through the work they do and how the agency did, but how involved they are in the community," said Kelly. "And Rob has really stepped in and helped. He was our clear-cut, unanimous choice.""It's not every day that you get to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jay Chiat and Lee Clow," Schwartz said, "but as a fellow recipient of the Leader of the Year award, I'll take it."Schwartz came to the agency in 1998 from Team One, where he contributed to the Lexus team under Tom Cordner. As an associate creative director on Nissan under then-executive creative director Rob Siltanen, Schwartz "worked in the hallway of the [Chiat\Day] binocular building between a bathroom and a fire exit," he recalled. "I traded in my Lexus for a Maxima and never looked back." Schwartz stepped up to creative director in 1999 and was named the shop's executive creative director in 2001. In the interim, he was given global responsibilities for Nissan. Schwartz recalled what Clow told him then: "Lee said, 'You've got enough ego to build something great, but not so much ego that you'll try to do it all yourself.' "Schwartz and Clow split brands, with Clow concentrating on Apple, Adidas and Mars, in addition to myriad global responsibilities, and Schwartz overseeing Nissan, Infiniti and the rest of the Playa del Rey, Calif., accounts, including Sara Lee and Sony Computer Entertainment America. "One man cannot serve all those brands," Schwartz said, "so I've got the best CDs in the business running those businesses, and come in as necessary."Schwartz will be handed the Leader of the Year crown by last year's honoree, Robert LePlae, now president of TBWA\North America, who Schwartz describes as being "inextricably linked at the hip" with him. "I selfishly won a lot of his [Leader of the Year] award last year, and he deservedly won a lot of my award this year.""There's a delicate balance between competition and community collaboration," Schwartz said, "and as much as I've spent every moment of my waking life making this agency the best on the planet, I save a few winks at night on making L.A. the best community on the planet. I believe in the magic of California, and the power of L.A. as a media arts mecca. So many talented people live here, it is great for any brand to tap into this rich vein of talent."Schwartz said his managerial philosophy is "the Jay [Chiat] way and the Lee [Clow] way, which is to recognize that 'life, liberty and pursuit of happiness' is bigger than who is in the White House and that 'It's better being the pirates than the Navy' is bigger than who is steering the ship. Right now, I'm just the lucky guy holding the wheel."

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Schwartz to Be Honored as Leader of the Year

Gregory Solman

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Gregory Solman