Mike Becker - marketing strategist, writer, leader
 
Yes, slightly enlarged ego but fortunately big mind to go along with it. 30 years on Madison Avenue building brands and winning awards taught him a thing or two even if he was born in Toledo, Ohio. Mike grew up in NJ, graduated from Syracuse University and after military service delivered traffic helicopter reports for three years for a New York radio station. He came down to earth and began his advertising career as a copywriter at the first public ad agency, Papert Koenig Lois. Most of Mike's career was spent at Young & Rubicam Advertising (26 years in total). He left for awhile to spend three years as Chief Creative Officer at Ted Bates and then to BBDO as a top creative executive and member of the Board. He was part of the team that won the coveted Apple Computer account. Mike returned to Young & Rubicam and industry-leading direct marketing division Wunderman. As Chief Creative Officer Worldwide, he was also a member of the Young & Rubicam Partnership Board. Mike is considered to be an innovative and influential executive in the advertising industry. At Y&R companies, Mike created the award winning 25-year television campaign, "I'm stuck on Band-Aid 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me". He led the creation and production of the 10-year American Express Corporate Card campaign "To Your Success". During the late 70's and 80's, Mike created and supervised 1/3 of all Y&R's creative accounts including Jell-O Pudding with Bill Cosby, Dr Pepper, KFC, Eastern Airlines, Time Magazine, Met Life, Johnson & Johnson, US Army, General Foods, Cadbury, AT&T, the U.S.Postal Service, President's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and others. In September of 1998, he formed beckercommunications to advise senior clients on marketing, advertising and public relations. Mike was instrumental in building the creative team for Bill Bradley for President. Mike has spoken at conferences in more than 40 countries traveling out of America over 200 times during his career. Some of his speaking titles: Credibility in Advertising, Product Positioning, Behavior Marketing, The New Digital World.