Brendan Ryan
CEO, FCB Worldwide

Confounding the predictions of his eighth grade teacher and the Kuder Preference test, which indicated he was best suited to be a short-order cook, Brendan is CEO of FCB Worldwide and FCB Direct Worldwide. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of True North Communications. For the prior five years, Brendan was President, CEO of FCB New York which grew from roughly $500 million in annual billing to over $1 billion.

Before joining FCB, Brendan spent 14 years at Ogilvy & Mather, where his principal responsibilities involved heading up the American Express and Kraft General Foods accounts on a global basis. In addition, he was a member of the Board of Directors of OMW and head of the Account Management Department in New York.

Before Ogilvy & Mather, Brendan spent almost ten years in Product Management at General Foods, where he claims to have invented Stove Top Stuffing. He also spent two years at Citibank as Vice President of Marketing, where he claims to have learned how to balance his checkbook (sort of).

Brendan grew up in Lower Manhattan, earned a B.A. in History from Fordham College and an MBA from Wharton. He now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where he used to spend his time "being a New Yorker", going to movies, reading mysteries, watching television and observing his wife re-doing "his" apartment. However, twins (Sean and Emily) arrived five years ago, and he doesn't do those things anymore! (Well, he still reads Ñ but Babar, Big Bird and Elmo, and Cinderella have replaced Robert Parker and Elmore Leonard as "favorites".) He also spends time in the tasteful Hamptons on Long Island, trying to get on a golf course and relentlessly ignoring his lawn.

He's a member of the Citizens Crime Commission in New York City, and is on the Boards of Citymeals-On-Wheels and Regis High School.