The Marcus Graham Project taught me how to conquer my fears and live my dreams. I did not realize that I was afraid to succeed until I was placed in an unfamiliar place, with new people and forced to be better then I have ever been, everyday. I have helped create work that I previously only dreamed about and I believe that it would have remained a dream if it were not for MGP. The iCr8 boot camp has been one of the most stressful, invigorating, and fulfilling experiences of my life.It prepared me to be an agent of change not only in my career but in everything I do. It taught me to be fearless and brought out my true ability. Thank you Lincoln for fulfilling your purpose, because through that you have helped uncover my own.
MGP gave me hands-on experience in advertising by giving me the opportunity to create real work for real clients. I got a chance to learn from some of the leading professionals in the industry that gave me guidance that I could apply immediately to improve myself as a writer, professional, and person as a whole. The best thing that MGP has given me, though, is a relationship with other young professionals and the attitude of doing whatever we can to help each other succeed in our endeavors.
Scott Perkins is the AVP of Policy Advertising at AT&T. Originally, from Lawton Oklahoma, Perkins is a graduate of Texas A&M. He has worked at AT&T for a number of years and has served in a variety of roles prior to his current role, including AVP of External Affairs, as well as AVP of Advertising. Scott resides in Dallas Texas.
Tracey Brown leads the RAPP Dallas office, where she not only provides executive leadership and relationship management for key accounts, such as AMC Theatres, HP, FOSSIL, US Treasury, Bank of America and Hyatt Hotels, but also drives internal strategic teams to create branded consumerexperiences for their clients. This thinking creates a culture that has ledRAPP to be recognized as the only CRM agency named to Ad Age’s Agency A-List. She is a subject matter expert and thought leader for all things related to marketing strategy and results-focused programs and solutions.
Entering 2010, Tracey focused her attention on increasing RAPP Dallas’ impact in the community. While searching for ways to get involved, Tracey found an article featuring a Dallas-based non-profit organization that was mentoring and training students and aspiring advertising professionals. That organization was the Marcus Graham Project. And after hosting members of the 2010 iCR8 Bootcamp, Tracey knew that RAPP needed to support the mission and vision of the Marcus Graham Project. In early 2011, the Marcus Graham Project appointed RAPP as its agency of record.
Since then, Tracey has been appointed to serve on the Marcus Graham Project advisory board, where she brings strategic thinking and leadership to help grow the Marcus Graham Project’s initiatives.
Moving forward, Tracey looks forward to evolving RAPP and MGP’s relationship and continuing in the effort of developing the next generation of leaders in the advertising industry.
“The MGP builds the leaders of tomorrow. It’s a program designed to prepare and nurture young professionals to break into the advertising industry with not only the skills to be successful but the ability to make an impact on an industry underrepresented by minorities.”
Jason is the product of packaged goods marketing and one world changing creative brand.
He started his career in New York City with Saatchi & Saatchi and BBDO working on Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and M&M Mars. He learned the nuts and bolts of marketing while working on several #1 brands including Tide and M&M’s Candies.
After 6 years in New York, Jason moved to Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon to pursue his long time dream of defining culture through the voice of one of the greatest brands in advertising history, Nike. He went on to lead the Nike business in China throughout the Beijing Olympics. That was followed by a global appointment where he oversaw the development of key global efforts including Nike’s 2010 World Cup campaign, “Write The Future”, and the highly controversial (and incredibly viral) campaigns for both LeBron James (“Rise”) and Tiger Woods (“Earl and Tiger”).
He returns to China to lead W+K Shanghai through its next phase of creative innovation, committed to creating provocative relationships between good clients and their customers.
Tiffany R. Warren oversees all diversity efforts for Omnicom Group including the Omnicom Diversity development Advisory Council, the Omnicom Medgar Evers Associate Program and the Omnicom Diversity Initiatives Group. In 2005, Tiffany founded ADCOLOR® and the ADCOLOR® Awards. Before joining Arnold, Ms. Warren–at the age of 25– became the youngest Manager of Diversity Programs at the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York City. For six years, she oversaw all AAAA diversity initiatives, which included the comprehensive Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP) founded in 1973. Before joining the AAAA, Ms. Warren was an assistant account executive at Arnold in Boston where her duties focused on the Fleet Financial Services Group account. Ms. Warren is a member of the Advertising Club of New York’s Diversity Committee, AAF Mosaic Center Executive Committee, AAF National Academic Committee and AAAA Diversity Committee. Ms. Warren also serves on the boards of Together Our Resources Can Help (TORCH),The Winsor School Corporation, The Winsor School Alumni Board, and The American Advertising Federation (AAF). In her spare time, she proudly serves as the District 1 Coordinator for the AAF National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). She is a founding member of the Roundtable of Advertising Diversity Executives (RADE).She was recently honored as a 2007 Advertising Age Woman to Watch, is featured in Pepsi’s 2008 Black History Calendar entitled The First of Many which highlights African-American trailblazers (www.pepsifirsts.com), recipient of The 2008 President’s Award from The Advertising Club of New York, the 2008 AAF District 2 “Role Model” Diversity Achievement Award, 2009 NV Magazine Corporate Visionary Award, 2010 AAF Hall of Achievement Inductee and Jack Avrett Volunteer Award Recipient and 2011 Network Journal “25 Influential Black Women in Business”. Tiffany, a native Bostonian, is a graduate of The Winsor School and Bentley University.
Kevin Swanepoel is President of The One Club – the world’s foremost non-profit organization for the recognition and promotion of excellence in advertising. Kevin has twenty-three years experience in traditional advertising. He has held the position of Chief Creative Officer in two advertising agencies, and was the Founder of Creative & Strategic Advertising.
From 1996 – 1997, Kevin was the Publishing Entertainment and New Media Manager at Apple Computer, where he worked closely with agencies and developers in the fledgling days of the “World Wide Web”.
In 1997 Kevin was appointed as Interactive Director at The One Club in New York. In the eleven years that he has been at the One Club he has built One Show Interactive into the top International Interactive Award Show worldwide.
Kevin is the author of ten books and CD-ROM’s featuring “Advertising’s Best Interactive and New Media”. These annuals have become the standard reference books for the new media industry.
Kevin has appeared on FOX and NBC as an authority on current advertising trends and has been published in AdWeek, Advertising Age, Creativity, AdHoc, Advertising and Design, Campaign Brief and Propaganda and Marketing.
Currently Kevin teaches an “Interactive Advertising” online course for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
James “Buff” Parham is the owner and President of Parham & Associates, an independent consultancy dedicated to accelerating the growth of individuals and companies that have a proven track record in media related activities. The theme of his career has been building “world class” broadcast sales organizations that have delivered outstanding results, and as importantly, delivered outstanding sales executives. He thrives in a professional environment where he can serve as an agent for positive change. Leading people to achieve at levels beyond their own expectations has been very rewarding for him.
He is most recently the former Senior Vice-President-Sales, at Univision Station Group, where he served as second in command of Sales for the largest Spanish language TV station group in the U.S. There he was primarily involved in strategic planning, sales forecasting, and sales force development. He also built extensive agency/client contact network in key media centers such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Dallas. Prior to that he was the Vice-President-Sales, TeleFutura Station Group where he oversaw all sales-related activities and operations for Univision’s second station group. Key markets include Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Houston, Chicago and Dallas. With over 35 years of experience in media, Parham has also held positions as General Sales Manager, KUVN/KSTR, Univision, Dallas; General Sales Manager, KDFW/KDFI, FOX, Dallas; Station Manager/General Sales Manager/National Sales Manager, WFAA-TV, Dallas. He is a graduate of Stanford University and lives in New York with his wife, Rene Syler and two children.
George started his career in advertising 29 years ago, and during this time he has worked for agencies such as Bozell, Burton-Campbell and JWT.
George held different broadcast production and traffic management positions that enabled him to gain a lot of varied experience. More recently, he’s been involved in many public service initiatives these agencies have been engaged in.
For three years, JWT handled the Foundation Rwanda account, an organization that is providing secondary school education to children impacted by the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
George’s role in supporting the foundation involved placing PSA creative and acting as a liaison between the client and the agency. As a result of this project, JWT received a CA Award from Communication Arts.
George’s interests include white water rafting and hiking.
