Commentary

Real Media Riffs - Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

  • by April 3, 2006
MANIFESTING DESTINIES -- Do you remember the first time you met David Verklin? If you're like us, you probably remember him indelibly as a bright young Turk with boyish good looks, busting at the seams in the media department of Y&R. Thanks no doubt to a portrait stashed in some secret attic, Verklin still has his boyish charm and trademark aura of boundless pluck, but he's now busting at the seams of the entire advertising industry as head of Carat, and, we believe one day, all of Aegis Group or some other bigger organization. In other words, he had then, and has today, what writer Tom Wolfe might have called "the right stuff." You see it in the twinkle in his eyes. You hear it in his voice when he delivers one of his fiery sermons on why media is the most exciting part of the business. Verklin has and always will be one of Madison Avenue's rising stars, because he always wants more, never settles for less, and expects the same of everyone he encounters.

These are traits we've detected in others over the years, albeit with markedly different styles. That preternaturally passionate young media director toiling on the McDonald's business in Willard Hadlock's media department at Leo Burnett in the mid-80s, who most of us know today as Renetta McCann, the head of Starcom MediaVest Group, and the most powerful woman in media. The frighteningly smart, but plain-speaking IT guy hacking his way through the computer systems - also in Hadlock's department - whom you know today as Rishad Tobaccowala, the head of Publicis' new Denuo unit, and perhaps the smartest guy in media.

advertisement

advertisement

Different people. Different personas. Different styles. But they all have one thing in common: They exude a sense of manifest destiny. You meet them and you think instantly, "Well, this is someone I'd better keep an eye on." We want to know whom you've been keeping your eye on lately. And if you tell us, they may just end up on a special list: The 2006 edition of MEDIA magazine's "Rising Stars." Of course, if you do that, you might risk losing them sooner than you might want, or at the very least, having to give them the advancement they obviously deserve. So you might want to stay mum for now. But you'd only be buying time. If they've got the kind of qualities we're both thinking of, we'll hear about them sooner or later. Probably sooner. Help make it very soon--by the end of next week, which just so happens to be the deadline for MEDIA's call for entries to this year's list.

Click here if you have a name or two to pass along.

Next story loading loading..