Mark Goldstein, an promoting govt who helped reshape the function of company management and mentored generations of expertise, died Thursday, July 31. He was 77 years previous.
Goldstein spent the vast majority of his profession at companies comparable to Leo Burnett, Fallon, IPG, and BBDO, earlier than founding his consultancy, Eleven, in 2010. He’s remembered not just for his pioneering work in new enterprise, but in addition for his generosity, irreverent humor, and profound influence as a mentor. Tributes from former colleagues and protégés have flooded LinkedIn since information of his passing.
Born in Baltimore in 1947, Goldstein was a proud graduate of Northwestern College’s Medill College of Journalism, the place he earned each a BSJ and MSA in promoting and was later inducted into its Alumni Corridor of Fame. He overcame a childhood stutter to turn into a famend speaker and presenter, and carried with him a fierce perception within the energy of language, concepts, and mentorship.
He was broadly credited as the primary company govt to carry the title of chief advertising officer, a task that helped usher in a brand new period of growth-focused management at artistic retailers. At BBDO, the place he was vice chairman and CMO from 2005 to 2012, Goldstein helped deliver in additional than $4 billion in new enterprise and earn repeated Community of the 12 months honors. Throughout his time at Fallon, Goldstein helped develop the company’s billings from $185 million to $1 billion, contributing to wins from main shoppers together with Citi, BMW, United Airways, and Nikon.
David Lubars, chairman and chief artistic officer at BBDO, remembered Goldstein as a strategic genius and an honest and joyful human being.
“Mark was not solely a superb, revolutionary, insightful, impressed thinker and chief. He was a lovable, considerate, humorous, eccentric, and exquisite soul,” he wrote in a tribute to his former colleague. “Nearly as good an egg as a superb egg might be.”
He described Goldstein as “by far the most effective new enterprise chief I’ve ever met,” calling him a “five-tool participant” whose understanding of creativity, consumer emotion, enterprise, and belief made him unmatched in his area. He recalled Goldstein’s suede fringe jacket and matching loafers (“if Neil Younger had been in promoting, that is how he’d costume”), his love for Large Gulps, his obsession with music and artwork, and a hospital go to the place laughter threatened his stitches.
“Mark cherished artwork, music, journey, literature, films, and people ever-present Large Gulps,” he wrote. “He cherished his household, cherished his mates, cherished his co-workers. Goes with out saying, visa versa.”
He based his consultancy, Eleven, in 2010, advising company CEOs on new enterprise technique, management improvement, and long-term development planning. The agency labored with holding firms, advert networks, and artistic retailers throughout the business.
The title was a wink to his favourite movie, This Is Spinal Faucet, by which a guitarist famously boasts that his amp “goes to eleven”—a becoming nod to Goldstein’s perception in pushing previous typical limits.
Goldstein’s affect prolonged past his shoppers and colleagues to the rising leaders he mentored. On LinkedIn, Khartoon Weiss, head of North America gross sales at TikTok, credited Goldstein with shaping her profession and worldview: “Mark noticed one thing in me earlier than I even noticed it in myself,” Weiss wrote. “He was the primary particular person in a management function who actually requested for my opinion—and truly cared in regards to the reply. That form of perception modifications individuals. It modified me.”
She added: “Mark wasn’t only a mentor. He was a father determine in each method that mattered. He led with love—massive, loyal, unwavering love.”
Goldstein is survived by his spouse of 51 years, Linda; their daughter, Jenna Gold; and his brothers Robert and Don Goldstein and their households. He lived in Naples, Florida, earlier than relocating to Denver in 2024 to be nearer to his daughter. He continued mentoring and advising executives into the ultimate years of his life.
His affect spans companies, holding firms, and the lives of numerous colleagues he impressed—many who proceed to quote his mentorship as a defining drive of their careers.
