Straight Up is what happened when a bunch of advertising ladies got together and decided it was time there were more women leaders in our business.
*Select any name below to learn more about Straight Up’s Founders. Let’s do it, ladies!
Managing Partner | The&Partnership
I grew up in the British advertising scene notably helping British Airways cope with the aftermath of 9/11 and McDonald’s to help change people’s perceptions of their food quality. I moved to NYC in 2009 to become ‘Merican and help CHI & Partners make it there. Now we are The&Partnership in North America and I am as happy in Canada as I am in America as we build the business in both countries and I perfect my accent.
Partner, Chief Content Officer | co:collective
Tiffany Rolfe recently joined Co:Collective as Partner/Chief Content Officer from Crispin Porter + Bogusky where she was the VP/Executive Creative Director of the CP+B LA office.
During her ten years at CP+B, Tiffany created business-changing work for her clients, which included American Express OPEN, MINI Cooper, Volkswagen, Ikea, Burger King, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Kraft, Bolthouse Farms, Old Navy and Microsoft.
While running American Express OPEN, Tiffany was responsible for overseeing the development of the successful online small business community, OPEN Forum. She also worked on the ‘truth’ brand, which proved to be one of the most effective campaigns in history to curb teen smoking.
Her “Eat ‘em like junk food” work for Bolthouse Farms rebranded carrots in the battle against junk food and became a highly visible campaign in the ongoing debate about health and obesity.
Tiffany’s work has been featured on the cover of the New York Times, in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post,Advertising Age, Adweek, among others. She has received top awards at every major creative and effectiveness competition in the industry, including The One Show, D&AD, The Clios, The Andys, The Effies, and Cannes, where her work was awarded a Grand Prix and Titanium Lion. Tiffany was featured in Advertising Age’s “Twenty Five Twenty-Somethings,” in Adweek’s “Young Ones,” and in 2009, she was named one of Advertising Age’s “Women to Watch” and is now a member of the Ad Council.
CEO | Partners + Napier
Sharon is part creative, part business, part financial, part visionary. A natural collaborator, Sharon always makes sure the “Partner” in Partners + Napier comes first. She is relentlessly focused on the success of her clients and her employees. It’s a recipe that has resulted in an average client tenure of 12 years, and helped her realize her vision of an agency where great people do great work for great clients.
Sharon’s special blend of business, marketing, and people skills has helped her grow the agency from just 40 people six years ago to a team of 150 today.
Co-founder, Co-CEO | co:collective
Rosemarie is a renowned leader, brand builder and rabble-rouser in the marketing industry.
She has been instrumental in positioning and building world class brands for Diageo, Johnson and Johnson, Debeers, Bing for Microsoft and Jetblue. As president of k&b she took it from a 30 person boutique to a 400 person strong award winning agency. She then took on the mantle of leading the 125 yr old JWT into the 21st century. In her tenure she restructured the workplace, the teams and creative product, and doubled the profits of the agency. Her efforts culminated with JWT having been recognized as Adweek’s Global agency of the year.
Not satisfied with reinventing an agency, she decided it was time to reinvent the industry.
In September of 2010 , Rosemarie, along with her creative partner TY Montague, jumped out of JWT to found co:
co: is a growth partner, designed to ready brands and businesses for growth in the networked world.
Before co, Rosemarie was co-President of JWT North America. On starting this role in 2004, she gave “open door policy” a new meaning – literally ripping down all the office doors and walls, fostering a new level of collaboration and creativity in a completely open-plan work environment. She has broken down not only walls, but infused those teams with the talent and skills to build 21st century brands – from digital to design to channel planning.
In Rosemarie’s five years as president of JWT New York, the office doubled its profits. That growth was fueled by new business wins and organic growth including JetBlue, Microsoft, Royal Caribbean International, Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson and Diageo.
Rosemarie began her career as a planner at BBDO in London. In 1989, she was hired by Chiat/Day NY and was among the first wave of Brits to import the Account Planning discipline to the United States. Prior to joining JWT, Rosemarie spent eight years as President of Kirshenbaum and Bond, the award–winning agency responsible for turning the Snapple brand into a $700 million business.
In January of 2009, Rosemarie was promoted to Co-President of JWT North America with her partner Ty Montague. In January of 2010, JWT was awarded Adweek’s Global agency of the year, in large part for the growth in both creative reputation and revenue in North America. In April of 2009, Rosemarie was awarded the Quantum Leap Award from AWNY. This award recognizes individuals who have taken big risks by spurring significant changes in their organizations.
Partner + CEO | Anomaly New York
Formerly, Karina was the Managing Director of Fallon London, having joined Fallon’s Founding Partners in 1999 and successfully grew the agency from creative startup to a Top Ten agency. Under her leadership the agency doubled its revenue, and was awarded Campaign’s UK Agency of the Year in 2006 and 2007. Fallon went on to become the most creatively awarded agency in the world (Gunn Report 2008), with creative highlights including a Cannes Grand Prix, a rare D&AD Black Pencil for Cadbury ‘Gorilla’, and international recognition for the agency’s Sony Bravia campaign.
Over ten years at Fallon, Karina ran a broad portfolio of the agency’s business, from Sony to the BBC.
During her time as Head of Client Services, she built one of the strongest Account Management departments in London and went on to develop an agency-wide talent pool with highly diverse skills to position Fallon as a pioneering, front-of market company.
In London, Karina played a key role in the UK industry, including being part of the Training and Development Exec for Women in Advertising and Communications London (WACL) and being a member of the industry body’s Client Services Committee at the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA).
Former Chairman | BBH New York
Emma spent the early years of her advertising career at various London agencies – big and small, good and bad – before finding her spiritual home at BBH in 1993. She’s been part of the agency ever since, attempting to conceal this embarrassing stasis with an evolving variety of roles and locations: strategic planner then Business Group Head at BBH London, followed by NY – then Global – Head of Strategic Planning, BBH NY CEO, Chairman…..
Along the way, Emma’s worked on some great brands and campaigns and has been recognized as one of our industry’s more prominent female leaders – one of AdAge’s recent ‘100 Most Influential Women in Advertising’, Business Insider’s ’30 Most Powerful Women in Advertising’ etc.
She is really proud to be part of an agency with decent female representation in its ranks of senior talent, and to be part of an industry in which every day at the office is guaranteed interesting – even if also occasionally exhausting/exasperating/insane.
She has none of those impressive-sounding hobbies/interests that are supposed to round out resumes like this – but she does have an awesome husband and two daughters, and in her spare time (ha!) is a supporter/advisor to the teen/older children adoption Not-For-Profit organization YouGottaBelieve.
Chief Strategy Officer | iCrossing
Anne has over 25 years of experience in the advertising and marketing business. She’s helped position brands like BMW, Citibank, Virgin, Starbucks and Amazon’s Kindle. Most recently she was Managing Director at MDC Partners with responsibility for a portfolio of creative companies that focus on advertising, branding and research. Prior to joining MDC, Anne served as executive vice president and general manager of Cramer-Krasselt’s New York office, and before that, was Founding Partner and CEO of independent agency Toy. Over its nearly five-year run, Toy New York garnered numerous industry accolades and attracted clients such as Amazon, Budweiser, Virgin Mobile, Macy’s and Google. One of the agency’s most celebrated campaigns, “Elf Yourself” for OfficeMax, achieved unique notoriety when it spread virally to over 200 million people in less than six weeks.
Before founding Toy, Anne spent much of her years in the advertising business at Fallon; first as Director of Strategic Planning for their Minneapolis office and later as President of their New York office, where she nearly doubled the agency’s billings and transformed the outpost into one of the top 10 most awarded agencies in the world. During that time, she contributed pioneering thinking to a number of global brands, creating the “brand bible” that gave focus to Starbucks in the late 1990’s and helping develop the global brand strategy for Citibank’s award-winning “Live Richly” campaign, considered the most successful in Citibank’s history.
Anne has been featured in Fast Company, co-hosted “Ad Fight,” starred in a reality show pilot for the Oxygen Network, and was named a “Woman to Watch” by Advertising Age. She is a guest lecturer at Columbia University and one of an elite group of industry leaders who co-authored the book “The 22 Immutable Laws of Advertising and How to Break Them.” Anne has also received the “Changing the Game Award” – an honor given by Adweek and Advertising Women of New York to honor women who’ve reinvented their businesses to meet today’s challenges.
She’s happily married to her college sweetheart, and has one son who lives in Brooklyn.