MW Presents: Spontaneously Candid, a McCann Worldgroup Podcast

In our next episode of “Spontaneously Candid,” Harjot is joined by our very own Alex Lopez, President and Chief Creative Officer, who recently joined McCann Worldgroup after a 20-year career at Nike, making a huge career shift from the client to agency business.

One of the most accomplished and awarded brand marketers and creative storytellers in the world of consumer marketing, Alex has a history of defining, differentiating and activating consumer engagement across Nike’s brand. During his career there, Alex was at the leading edge of evolving how the brand connects with consumers, spearheading some of its most influential efforts, including: Dream Crazy, Equality and You Can’t Stop us among many others.

Alex’s work has impressively won every important creative marketing award, including multiple Emmy nominations and wins, Cannes Grand Prix Lions, a D&AD Black Pencil and hundreds of others. He even has work featured in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Tune into learn about Alex’s past, his tricks of the trade and what parts of his personal life have helped pave the way for him.

New year, new “Spontaneously Candid!” To kick off 2022, Harjot is joined joined by the unstoppable Amy Armstrong – Global CEO of Initiative, one of the top media agencies in the world and a sister IPG agency to McCann Worldgroup.

In this episode, we scratch the surface of everything Amy has accomplished. Perhaps even more importantly, Amy shares her complex and inspiring personal story.

Amy has held leadership positions at IPG for over 20 years, including serving as President of BPN Worldwide and of ID Media, which is even more impressive when you consider that she was at the helm when the ad world had few female leaders. Her strategic acumen, ability to identify and develop talent and continued focus on accountable and impactful D, E&I efforts have made her one of the agency world’s most effective and admired leaders.

While serving as Initiative’s U.S. CEO, Amy’s role at the agency before taking on the global leadership role, the agency won virtually every U.S.-based accolade there is, including being named U.S. Comeback Agency of the Year by Ad Age, U.S. Media Agency of the Year by Adweek, and a Best Place to Work by Ad Age.

Tune in to find out about Amy’s journey, how she got to where she is, what personal and professional barriers have stood on her way and how she conquered them.

In this episode of “Spontaneously Candid,” Harjot is joined by Eureka O’Hara – widely-regarded as one of the best-known and one of the most entertaining and successful drag queens in recent her story – for a fascinating discussion about identity, self-love, life in the spotlight and more.

Eureka competed on the 9th and 10th seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race and, most recently, was a finalist in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 6. Eureka is also currently one of a trio of hosts of “We're Here” on HBO, where they help find and mentor small-town residents to participate in one-night only drag shows. Eureka is also an accomplished singer. Among their singles are “The Big Girl” and “Body Positivity” – which happens to also be a key issue for which this “Elephant Queen” has long championed.

Eureka’s personal and professional journey – from starting off as David Huggard born in Tennessee to a life of fame and fortune, from being born male, living as a transgender woman and then re-transitioning to identifying as genderfluid and non-binary, from Drag upstart to All-star and mentor – Eureka’s story is as compelling, layered and engrossing as it sounds.

With everything Eureka has accomplished, what has remained frustratingly outside of their grasp? What do they wish they have done differently? What would they never change? Tune in to this episode to find out.

In this episode of “Spontaneously Candid,” Harjot turns the tables on accomplished advertising and marketing reporter, Jeff Beer – instead of him telling us a story we want to hear his. What are the key themes of his personal narrative? What drives him? What scares him? What is he proud of and what does he wish he could take back? If we were writing a full feature on Jeff Beer – what would the headline be?

Jeff Beer, Staff Editor at Fast Company, covers advertising, marketing and brand creativity. He is one of the most well-regarded reporters covering our space, having written at the famed publication for years and for a suite of the industry’s top outlets prior, including Canadian Business Magazine, Marketing Magazine, AdAge, and Creativity Magazine.

Jeff writes in-depth stories on the trends and brands reshaping and redefining the industry. With co-author Nicole Laporte, he recently wrote the cover story for Fast Company’s coveted “Most Innovative Companies” on Lebron James’ SpringHill Company. He is also the host/producer of Fast Company’s weekly video series, “Brand Hit & Miss.”

In this episode, we’re the reporter and the reporter is our subject.

From the jungles of Panama and Honduras, to fighter jets in the Navy, to decoding the genome of one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, to leading a next-generation vaccine program, to tracking chimpanzees with Jane Goodall, to creating one of the world’s most creatively awarded health campaigns, there isn’t much Dan Carucci hasn’t seen or done.

Dan’s credentials and experience are unlike those of any other leader in our network. He’s a physician and molecular biologist with over 30 years of experience in cutting-edge science. As a research physician with the US Navy, he led ground-breaking programs in genomics and proteomics, and next-generation vaccine development against malaria. After retiring from the Navy with the rank of Captain after 20 years active service, he was appointed as the first Director of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative, a $200 million program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As Vice President of Global Health at the United Nations Foundation, Dr. Carucci served on the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

He has published more than 80 peer reviewed papers in high impact journals such as Nature and Science, and holds two U.S. patents for vaccine technologies.

His professional credentials are well-known...his personal story and journey has remained hidden until now. Listen to this fascinating discussion between Dan and Harjot in this episode of “Spontaneously Candid”.