Barry Wacksman is the Vice Chairman, Global Chief Strategy Officer of R/GA, overseeing all of R/GA’s strategic practices, from consulting to insights to data. He also oversees the global business development team. Barry is a key architect of R/GA’s vision of the “Connected Age,” which focuses on growing brands through a connected ecosystem of products and services. His articles have been published in a wide variety of industry publications. He has presented on topics pertaining to strategy, innovation, design and technology at conferences and events around the world.
Barry is the co-author of Connected by Design (2014, John Wiley and Sons) where he developed the concept of Functional Integration to describe the business models of market leaders like Apple, Google and Amazon as well as the emergence of new categories like the connected home, the connected car and connected financial services.
Since joining R/GA in 1999, the company has grown organically from an agency of under 50 employees to one employing over 2,000 staff in 17 offices globally. Barry led the charge to acquire many of the world-class brands that make up R/GA’s client roster, from Nike to Samsung to Google to Verizon to Unilever.
Barry serves as Chairperson of the board of Miami Ad School and also serves on the board of directors of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Advertising Educational Foundation and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. He graduated from Ohio State University with a B.A. in philosophy and was a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at Syracuse University.