Kenneth Richard Kaess Jr. (July 30, 1954 – 27 March 2006) was CEO of
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
,
DDB Worldwide.
Born in
Waterbury, Connecticut and raised in
Watertown, Connecticut, Kaess graduated from
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
.
Kaess began in 1977 at Doyle Dane Bernbach, which was later renamed DDB. He left for a vice president/management supervisor position at Jordan, McGrath, Case & Taylor, then went to
New World Entertainment
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
, where he was responsible for the
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
-winning ''
Muppet Babies.''
He returned to DDB to run the Los Angeles and New York offices before being appointed as Worldwide President in 1999 and Chief Executive Officer in 2001.
He was the first executive to serve two consecutive terms as head of the
American Association of Advertising Agencies.
He died at his home in
Westport, Connecticut, aged 51, of cancer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaess, Ken
1954 births
2006 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
Vassar College alumni
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
American advertising executives
People from Watertown, Connecticut