Ramirez – Executive Creative Director @ Castells & Asociados.

Castells & Asociados Advertising announced that Rafael Ramirez as its new executive creative director.

In addition to Rafael’s arrival, Castells & Asociados has recently beefed up its creative department by promoting Patricia Annicchiarico to creative director, Nadia Voukitchevitch to senior producer, Arturo Monroy to senior copywriter and Karen Youngs to director of creative operations; as well as adding the new, young talent of Javier San Miguel as a copy writer and Michelle Del Castillo as an art director. This reinforcement of the creative department mirrors the previous expansions of the agency’s account services and media groups necessary to serve the agency’s growing client roster. Castells & Asociados has won 19 out of its last 22 new business pitches.

“Rafael thinks strategically, is results-oriented, is a creative problem solver, has strong intuition, and knows the complexity of the Hispanic consumer market. He will help push our creative forward with an edgy, ground-breaking style,” said Liz Castells-Heard, president of Castells & Asociados. “The more you get to know Rafael, the more you like and respect him. He knows his stuff. He has a strong presence and can be quite electric. There’s a quiet power about him, and that’s a nice balance to me. He’s a born leader, yet is a hands-on person. We are in sync in our philosophies and desire for aggressive growth, where smart decision-making, passion about what we do and people skills are key.”

Prior to joining Castells & Asociados, Rafael served four years as vice president, creative director of Publicis Sanchez & Levitan in Los Angeles, growing the agency’s premier Nestlé and T-Mobile accounts. Before this position, he worked in Mexico at leading agencies, including Leo Burnett and, most recently, as a group creative director at McCann-Erickson. He worked on accounts from diverse industries, including Black & Decker, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Colgate, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Kellogg’s, Mennen, Motorola, Nextel and P&G. Rafael graduated from Universidad de la Comunicación in Mexico City with a bachelor’s degree in advertising. Rafael is happily married with a young family.