Obie Judges - 2003
Sal Devito ~ Chief Judge
DeVito/Verdi
Sal DeVito is co-founder, and Executive Creative Director of DeVito/Verdi New York. Before DeVito/Verdi, Sal was Associate Creative Director of Levine Huntley Schmidt and Beaver. Prior to that, he was an art director at Chiat/Day New York.
Under his tutelage, DeVito/Verdi has created award winning campaigns for such clients as Time Out New York, Canon Business Solutions, Daffy's, and the America Civil Liberties Union to name a few. Sal has won all of the major advertising awards, including an armful of Obies along the way. As an active member of the advertising community, Sal teaches at the School of Visual Arts, and was given the Distinguished Artist-Teacher Award in 2001.
Jonathan Bond
kirshenbaum bond & partners
Jon Bond is the Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the kirshenbaum bond creative network, a privately held independent network of marketing communications specialty companies including kirshenbaum bond & partners, kbp west, Dotglu, LIME and The Media Kitchen.
In 1987, Jon, along with business partner and Co-Chairman Richard Kirshenbaum, founded kirshenbaum bond & partners. The agency is best known for originating the ground breaking advertising campaign for Kenneth Cole, as well as establishing Snapple as a household name with the launch of Snapple's "100% natural" advertising campaign featuring "Wendy the Snapple lady."
In 2000, Jon and Richard set out to create the first "independent network" of marketing specialty companies. Thus, the kb creative network launched by expanding the existing disciplines within kbp to become a leader of a new generation of agencies that embrace total branding, brand planning/consulting, integrated marketing communications, media buying and planning, public relations and promotions and the Internet.
Edgar Cardoze
Dieste Harmel & Partners
Edgar Cardoze is a native of Mexico City. Edgar has over 29 years of advertising experience, 22 of those years being of media experience, both nationally and internationally, and is a recognized leader in the Hispanic media and marketing field.
Since 1978, Edgar has served as Media Director at leading agencies in Latin America: McCann Erickson, Quadrant (SSC & B Lintas), Grey Mexico and BBDO. Edgar was a partner at BBDO Mexico with overall responsibility for blue chip accounts such as Pepsi-Cola, Delta Airlines, Gillette, Bayer, Hasbro and Federal Express.
At Dieste Harmel & Partners, Edgar heads up one of the largest and most sophisticated planning and buying operations in the Hispanic market, responsible for clients including Procter & Gamble, Pepsi-Cola, Hyundai, Frito-Lay, Clorox, Quaker, Wrangler, HBO, Radio Shack, Hershey, SBC, etc. Edgar has earned respect for acumen as well as his clout. In 2002 he was recognize, by his peers, as the best Media Director during the AHAA conference.
Mendi LeBlanc
Lamar Advertising Company
Mendi LeBlanc began her career at Lamar Advertising in 1997, where she is the director of creative services at the corporate office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After designing billboards for more than 40 cities across the United States, Mendi moved to her current position in the marketing department at Lamar.
Mendi's responsibilities include the implementation and design of corporate marketing materials, branding campaigns and communications. She also develops and centralizes Lamar's creative, copy and sales concepts.
A graduate from the Louisiana Art Institute, she remains active in the Baton Rouge community as a member of the local Advertising Federation and is a recipient of several local awards.
David Oakely
Boone/Oakley
David Oakley is co-founder and creative director of Boone/Oakley in Charlotte. David and his partner John Boone started Boone/Oakley in 2000, and the agency is happy to call Continental Tire, Paramount Parks, Bombardier Flexjet and Charlotte Plastic Surgery clients. Before starting his own shop, David was a creative director at The Martin Agency, where he developed campaigns for Wrangler Jeans, WEND-FM and Alltel. He started his career 15 years ago as a junior copywriter at Young & Rubicam New York. From there he moved across Madison Avenue to TBWA and enjoyed Absolut Vodka for 4 years. Like everyone else in this business, he's won One Show Pencils, Cannes Lions and Clio's. But his favorite award is the 2002 OBIE Best of Show for the Charlotte Hornets.
Daniel B. O’Shea
Fairway Outdoor Advertising
Seven dollars to Seven-Up in 1971 bought Dan his first 30-sheet poster and ended his brief newspaper career pitching the Washington Post and New York Times. After graduating with a BFA from East Carolina University's School of Art in 1976, Dan became the design director and production manager of an imprinted sportswear firm in Greenville, NC.
In 1980 he joined the Naegele Outdoor Advertising Companies as an art director in eastern North Carolina. With Morris Communications' acquisition of Naegele in 1985, Dan moved to Augusta, Georgia as Naegele's national creative director,
In September of 2001, Dan was inducted into the Outdoor Advertising Association of America's Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the Augusta Advertising Federation/AAF Silver Medal Award as well as two OBIE Awards and several AAF National ADDY Awards.
In October of 2002, Dan was promoted to General Manager of Fairway's Piedmont Triad markets. He is a current member of the OAAA Marketing Committee and the OAAA National Convention Planning Committee.
Mark Scheider
TBWA\Chiat\Day
Mark is a senior designer at TWBA/Chiat/Day. He began his career at HBO and the Discovery Channel. Armed with a portfolio of Michael Jackson concert posters and ads depicting the mating rituals of Wildebeests, he landed a position at Grey Entertainment working on ABC, Showtime and the W hotel. But New York was cold. So he bolted for Los Angeles to work on ABC at TBWA\Chiat\Day. Over the next few years, Mark won several awards for putting big black type on a solid yellow background (PMS 109). Recently, he has branched out into other colors for companies like Apple (White), XM Satellite Radio (Black), Infiniti and Nissan (Sterling Mist, Icelandic Pearl and Sunlit Sand, among others).