Castells & Asociados Nabs Industry Heavyweight.

Carlos Mendez steps into the ring as EVP, Chief Creative Officer at Castells & Asociados. Poised to rev up the agency’s solid creative department, Carlos exudes the confidence of the seasoned pro he is with many distinctive, successful campaigns under his belt that have garnered major industry accolades.

With over twenty years of multinational experience at McCann Erickson, Leo Burnett and Y&R Bravo Group’s MD, Mendez knows what it takes to do knockout campaigns and grow clients businesses. He leads by example with a two-punch strategy, driving the vision and big ideas but with attention to detail and execution. His simple groundbreaking style is palpable in recent award-winning Hispanic work for Cingular, Kia Motors, Drug-Free America and Ragu, the latter adapted for general market. His breakthrough creative for Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever and Kellogg’s Special K was published in prestigious publications like SHOTS, GRAPHIS, Ad Age, Epica Best of Europe; he was twice a Black Pencil’s recipient at Leo Burnett and of the H. K. McCann Leadership Award in Latin America.

“His creative work is brilliant, strategically-sound and right in step with my Bernbach-inspired vision and training,” says Liz Castells-Heard, President/CEO. “Carlos is very well-respected, known for strong leadership, management and new business skills. He knows brand and retail and likes both, gets our need in this business to ‘sell, sell, sell,’ and the concept of “no BS” teamwork. Carlos will take our already strong creative team to a higher level. We’re so in sync in our philosophies, passion for the business and desire for aggressive growth. This is exactly the guy I had imagined to round out my senior team and help lead Castells to the next level. The time has come and we are ready to rumble!”

Prior to joining Castells, Carlos was EVP, Chief Creative Officer at Y&R Bravo Group’s MD where he led the agency through a major re-engineering and was instrumental in winning the Cingular Wireless, and Kia Motors national accounts. He also worked at Leo Burnett as Executive Creative Director on blue-chip accounts Kellogg’s, Hallmark, Nissan, and Tanqueray. Yet, most of his experience and broad international perspective that gives him an edge comes from many years at McCann Erickson as Executive Creative Director in Puerto Rico, Latin America, as well as Ireland, Norway, Canada, and Italy; managing multinational clients such as Coca-Cola, Citibank, Nestlé, GM, Kodak and L’Oreal.