VP Brand & Integrated Strategy · Chicago, IL
From McCafé Effies to AutoZone boardrooms — building the strategy infrastructure that turns consumer insight into brand growth, and brand growth into business results.
Chicago · 13+ Years
I am a VP-level brand and integrated marketing strategy leader based in Chicago with 13+ years of agency-side experience building the frameworks, playbooks, and insight architectures that let great creative actually work.
My career spans DDB Chicago, Leo Burnett, Havas, Upshot, Fusion92, and Superfile & Realm Agency — with brand work across McDonald's, Kellogg's, AutoZone, Samsung, Modelo, Svedka, and EGO Power Tools, among others. I've led strategy practices from the ground up, partnered directly with CMOs, and built the kind of consumer intelligence infrastructure that informs C-suite decisions, not just briefs.
I hold a B.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from DePaul University and a Human-Centered Service Design certificate from IDEO University. I'm currently deepening my expertise in GEO, AEO, and agentic commerce — because strategy that isn't fluent in what's next isn't strategy at all.
I don't just make decks. I build the thinking engines behind them — the learning agendas, insight frameworks, and brand architectures that teams actually use to make decisions.
Ozzie's strategic instinct sets up creatives for success. He knows how to build the brief that unlocks the work — every time.
Ozzie solves complex brand challenges by seeing what others miss. He has a rare ability to reframe the problem before anyone else knows it needs reframing.
Ozzie delivers a passionate and delicate balance of insights-based thinking and creative boundary-pushing strategy that moves brands forward.
Ozzie is the strategist creatives can only hope for — collaborative, thorough, and actively involved in the work from brief to execution.
Ozzie showed me how to merge creativity and strategy to tell powerful brand stories — a skill that changed how I approach every brief.
Ozzie turns complex brand challenges into doable plans — with the strategic clarity to bring teams along and the rigor to make them actually work.
Ozzie builds consensus among clients and creatives — then inspires them to aim beyond their limits. That combination is genuinely rare.
Clients, colleagues, and people from partner agencies all came to value Ozzie's thinking. That's the mark of a strategist who transcends any one team.
Ozzie is a strategic powerhouse. His ability to synthesize consumer complexity into a clear, actionable platform is something I've rarely seen at any level.
Ozzie laid the foundation for the strategy department and junior team member career ladders — building the infrastructure that let the whole practice grow.