jay/day

In my 17.5 years of working at C/D, I worked with so many people the number sometimes seems infinite. If I had to choose my Top Ten Favorite People I Ever Worked With, one name would surely appear on that list: Chuck Phillips.

He was Employee #1 at C/D, but I got to work with him most closely when he opened the Toronto office. Adelaide Horton and I went up to Toronto one VERY cold January and helped him get the doors opened. It was one of my favorite experiences.

Chuck has been immensely supportive of this site since the beginning, supplying me with contact information for lost alums and providing great background on the "formative years" at the company. He also made a generous financial donation to the site last week, for which I am truly grateful.

So this is my very personal salute to Chuck.

Since he played so many roles at C/D, I asked him to provide me with a recap, so I wouldn't forget any.

Take it away, Chuck ...

here it is in a nutshell...

1. hired October 7, 1968 as account guy on Fairchild Semiconductor, the new agency's biggest client. the rationale was that my previous scientific instrumentation company job implied a technology aptitude which i did not have. A new writer, Paul Decker, started the same day but he was hired two hours after me. hence "badge #1." worked on tons of early fun stuff (e.g. hunt wesson, ontario motor speedway, KMPC, leach "heritage of the air") and became point man on honda cars.

2. promoted to "vice president" director of client services in 1970 which i thought silly because we didn't have titles in those days (one of the things i was proudest about the place). the title meant nothing to me but did to our japanese honda client. when I became a VP i had open access to their senior management whereas before i had to deal with cranky ad managers. a year after we lost the honda i left for a brief 5 month stay at a defector agency (abert, newholl & burr).

3. hired back by Jay to open new san francisco operation in 19'75 as GM to support new client national semiconductor's (Novus) foray into consumer electronics (watches, calculators and video games). National pulled out of the consumer business in 1978 and we folded our tent and slinked out of town

4. Jay had moved into the Biltmore and gave me another snazzy title: executive vice president, corporate director of business development (a.k.a. "new business guy") in 1978.

5. in 1980 Jay bought a San Franciso agency, Hoefer, Dieterich & Brown) and I was dispatched back north to be president of Chiat/Day/Hoefer. while there. i ended up point guy on the acquisition of regis mc kenna, which netted us Apple.

6. Left the agency for 6 years and returned in 1987 to open and be CEO of first "international" C/D office in Toronto (we were there because of inheriting the nissan canada business when nissan's AOR (Bates) resigned the account after being bought by Saatchi over a conflict with Hyundai.

7. got fired in 1991.

Damn.