Rick Boyko
President/Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy & Mather
New York, USA

Rick began his career as an art director at Leo Burnett Chicago, where he worked on the United Airlines account. In the 1980s, he made his mark at Chiat/Day Los Angeles, working on acclaimed campaigns for Mitsubishi Electric, Nike, Pizza Hut and Home Savings of America. Rick joined Ogilvy & Mather New York in 1989, subsequently working on American Express and Duracell, and in 1994 he was named creative head of the New York office and appointed to the Worldwide Board one year later.

In 1997, Rick was named Chief Creative Officer and Co-President (sharing the latter title with Bill Gray) of O&M's $1.5 billion flagship New York office. The following year Rick was also named North American Chief Creative Officer, partnering with then-North American President, Tro Piliguian, to improve the creative product and audit the talent across the agency's six-office North American network.

During his tenure as Co-President, Rick initiated new ways for the agency to work. He created an internal design group called The Brand Integration Group, and developed a unique relationship with six small agencies, collectively called the Syndicate. Rick also helped implement "Young Guns," an in-house mentoring program for young creatives joining the agency.

In the aftermath of September 11, Rick conceived "Brotherhood," a 240-page coffee table book as a tribute to our firefighters that reached number eight on The New York Times bestseller list, selling over 250,000 books. All sale proceeds have gone to the families of the fallen firefighters.

Rick currently sits on the boards of The One Club, the AAAAs, Creative Circus College in Atlanta, VCU Adcenter in Virginia, Michigan State University, Roxio, Inc., and on the steering committee for Art Center College of Design, of which he is an alumnus. Rick is also a veteran of the United States Air Force.

In July 2003, Rick will retire from the advertising industry to become Managing Director of VCU Adcenter.