Ed is the CEO and Founder of Best Friend Brands, a Los Angeles-based Strategic Consultancy that helps companies succeed by giving their customers what they actually need. It sounds simple enough, but as marketing has become more and more focused on the most efficient way to stalk customers through the digital forest, many companies have forgotten that customers are, fundamentally, human beings, and the best way of getting and keeping a customer is to provide something of value that satisfies a human need. Before starting Best Friend Brands, Ed was a Partner and Managing Director of the Los Angeles office of 9th Wonder. Ed also spent 18 years at Phelps, one of the largest independent agencies on the West Coast, providing value to clients such as PETCO, DIRECTV and Public Storage, before rising to the position of CEO. Ed started his advertising career as a copywriter at BBDO and teaching creative strategy at the Portfolio Center. Apart from marketing, Ed loves his wife, two daughters, bourbon, and pulled pork.