John Gerzema

John oversees brand strategy including its planning departments worldwide and its proprietary brand study, Brand Asset Valuator. John is the leading author of a new theory on branding, which is a proprietary study developed in conjunction with The Columbia Business School, and The University of Washington Business School.

John is recognized as one of America¹s early founders of Account Planning. John co-founded Account Planning at Fallon Worldwide in 1992 and was integral to its growth in the mid-90s, when Fallon tripled in size and was named Advertising Age¹s ³Agency Of The Year² (1996.) and A+ management rating in ADWEEK (2004). His client experience includes Coca-Cola, BMW, McDonald¹s, Citibank, Sony in Japan and China, Nikon and Nikon Digital.

John¹s travel and leisure experience is extensive. John ran global strategy for United Airlines and Six Continents PLC, managing brands such as Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental. John led the global strategic repositioning of Holiday Inn Express (³Stay Smart²) as well as the design and launch of Staybridge Suites.

Prior to joining Y&R, John was the architect and global planning director for Fallon¹s International network, overseeing offices in London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Hong Kong and partnerships in Latin America, U.S. Hispanic and Asia.

John has lectured in seminars for the AAAA, AMA, One Show, APG, Miami Ad school and others, and has written for, or appeared on/in, CNBC/ASIA, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and various industry publications in the United States, Asia, and Latin America.

John is married and lives in New York with wife Mary and daughter, Nina. John has a Master¹s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.