Brad Brinegar, Partner / Chairman & CEO

Brad learned the meaning of collaboration as an oarsman on Dartmouth’s crew team: “It’s not intuitive, but a boat actually goes slower when one guy rows better than the rest. And there is no defense in rowing, no way of stopping the other team. So the only way to win is to be smarter, work harder, care more and pull together better than your opponents.” Brad started his career in advertising at Leo Burnett after completing an MBA in Finance at Columbia, rising from trainee to CEO of Leo Burnett USA. While there, he became convinced that growing forces in the industry would favor mid-sized agencies with complex clients who understand how to manage complex interactions between people and brands. McKinney fit his brief as an agency poised to become a leader in the next generation of top agency brands. Brad’s led the agency since 2002. He’s on the board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and chairs the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Agency Advisory Board. A regular speaker at AAAA, IAB and Association of National Advertisers conferences, Brad has also lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Duke’s Fuqua School and Dartmouth College and his opinions are regularly sought by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and National Public Radio.