Cole & Weber United - Who We Are

Two men had a Baby in 1931, and they named it after Themselves

74 Years Later, Cole & Weber became Cole & Weber United

In 2005, we became a founding member of the WPP’s global voluntarily united group of creative agencies and gave it a west coast presence.

And this new global brotherhood allows our clients to splash around in a talent pool that stretches from Milan to Buenos Aires.

Bios

Get up close and personal with the Cole & Weber United head honchos (Minus the embarrassing stuff. Most of the embarrassing stuff, anyway).

Mike Doherty
President


Official:
Mike joined Cole & Weber United in 1998 as Managing Director of the Portland office. During his time there, the agency doubled in size. In 2000, he moved to Seattle and took over the helm. Today Mike oversees client strategy and the agency's operations.

Mike has more than 20 years of experience on both the agency and client sides of the advertising industry, and has worked in both b-to-b and consumer marketing for clients that include McDonald's, Nike, Virgin Interactive, Subaru, Cellular One and Microsoft.

Mike was co-founder and managing partner of AKA Advertising for seven years, before selling his agency to the technology agency KVO Advertising and Public Relations (now Fleishman-Hillard). AKA was recognized in nearly every creative award competition and was named by Advertising Age as one of advertising's "hot shops."

Unauthorized:
Greatest hope: To never regret.
Biggest regret: Not working the tricep area hard enough.
Largest fear: The overuse of superlatives.

James Mackenzie
Director of Strategic Planning


Official:
James joined Cole & Weber United in April 1998 with 20 years of U.K. advertising experience, 10 of them as a Senior Account Planner.

James was an early pioneer in the integration of multi-disciplined, 360° brand strategies. In his time at Cole & Weber United, it has been James' job to think ahead in high-tech, financial services, aerospace, outdoor clothing, grocery, CRM, fashion, power generation, personal investment, whiskey, cognac, electronic cash, multivitamins, Web analytics, luxury hotels and the odd dot-com.

For brands like Lloyds TSB (now Britain's biggest retail bank), the Savoy Group of Hotels, VISA International and Boeing, James was able to show the benefits of having a 360° brand ambassador through the combination of brand tracking and the results of integrated campaign test results. His passion for innovative planning is now shared worldwide across the entire Red Cell Network.

Unauthorized:
Idols: Branson.
Measures success: Using the metric system.
Triple threat: 1) Smart. 2) Witty. 3) British accent. And, frankly, that's all he needs.

MJ Keehn
Media Director


Official:
MJ's passion for advertising has fueled an uninterrupted career in media for nearly three decades. In 1995, she became Media Director of Cole & Weber United, bringing to the position her vast experience with strategic and tactical media work for technology companies, corporate image campaigns, packaged goods, QSR brands, financial products and travel companies.

Prior to becoming media director, MJ first headed the Cole & Weber United b-to-b media group and later supervised all media strategy development as Director of Media Planning. She has become an outspoken advocate for emerging new media and is responsible for creating one of the only fully integrated media operations in the Northwest, bringing together traditional and nontraditional media programs to accomplish client objectives.

Her experience in building new categories that have changed the way people do things is best exemplified by our work for University of Phoenix. MJ has been influential in building interest and lead generation online for the distant learning category since the late 1990s. In that time, MJ has not only created great success for UOP but also helped create a new way for people to achieve higher education.

She sits on the board of the newly formed IXMA, whose mission is to aid the advancement of experiential marketing, and she is active in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Unauthorized:
Enjoys: Fox News while reading Danielle Steel.
Wants you to know: "Mary Jane" is not a hippie reference.
Believes: That with a media makeover, even Ice Capades could make a comeback.

Todd Grant
Executive Creative Director


Official:
After attending Art Center College of Design, Todd spent three years in L.A. freelancing for a host of agencies on many different categories of consumer brands. In 1992 he went to New York for two years and worked at Chiat/Day on Reebok and New York Life. He headed west again to work at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, in San Francisco in 1995.

He and his partner began working on Anheuser-Busch and came up with Louie and Frank, The Budweiser Lizards. All six Super Bowl commercials placed in the USA Today Top Ten poll, and the New York Times and ESPN polls pegged the commercials as the most popular Super Bowl spots ever.

Todd has also produced notable work for HP and created the campaign that launched the "invent" tagline worldwide. At Chiat/SF, he created several Adidas TV commercials and art directed the worldwide launch of the Colors Apparel campaign for Adidas. Todd has received recognition from every major award show, both nationally and internationally.

He was stippled for The Wall Street Journal in 2001, but is most proud of his two children, Reiko and Whittaker.

Unofficial:
Feels a curious lack of awkwardness or dishonesty while writing about himself in the 3rd person.

Is currently incubating three premature red-throated house-thrushes in his hair.

Reminds his children that they will remain invisible to the business world at large until they, too, become stippled by The Wall Street Journal.

Richard Jacroux
CFO


Official:
Richard follows the money. And it also seems to follow him:

Richard's expertise surrounds both securing and managing capital, defining and driving business strategy, managing growth and building effective and scalable teams, processes and systems.

Richard has been consistently recognized for creating efficiencies, increasing margins and significantly improving the bottom line. His previous background includes VP, Finance at two software companies, including a $95 million revenue/400 employee multi-location ASP software business, Director of Finance and Systems at a publicly held dot-com, and a number of years at international CPA firms, culminating in a position as Senior Manager at Ernst & Young. He is also experienced in raising capital, negotiating and completing mergers and acquisitions, implementing CRM/ERP systems and SEC reporting.

Richard has an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a bachelor's degree from University of Washington. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Unofficial:
Considers people who make trite observations about money the root of all evil.

Will offer you a soda without asking.

Is always neatly tucked.