Joseph Kessler

Joe’s career spans nearly 30 years in communications, marketing, public affairs and business strategy. Currently, he is chief executive of The Intelligence Group (IG), a leading consumer insights firm focused on youth culture and consumer trends. IG is the publisher of The Cassandra Report which, for 15 years, has been the definitive syndicated study of youth attitudes, behaviors and consumption for marketers. IG also consults with an array of corporations and agencies on their marketing strategies for engaging youth audiences, including Visa, Nordstrom, Target, T-Mobile, Unilever, Time Warner and Leo Burnett, among many others. IG is wholly owned by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the largest entertainment and sports talent agency in the world.

Previously, Joe was a partner of SS+K, an integrated, non-traditional marketing communications agency that, among its many accomplishments, was part of the Obama for President media team during the campaign leading up to the 2008 national elections. At SS+K, Kessler had responsibility for overseeing client service, operations and business development across the western U.S. and providing corporate issues, marketing and public relations counsel to a wide range of clients, including Microsoft, MSNBC.com, Gap, Anthem (Blue Cross) and AOL, among others. SS+K is partially owned by CAA.

Before joining SS+K, Joe held a series of senior management positions over nine-plus years at Weber Shandwick, the world’s largest public relations and marketing communications agency and a subsidiary of Interpublic Group (IPG). These positions included President of Weber Shandwick California and President of the firm’s Global Technology Practice. Earlier, at BSMG Worldwide, he was President of the US Western Region and Senior Managing Director in BSMG’s Corporate Practice in New York. Also, he served on the firm’s Operations, North American Executive, and Corporate Practice Steering Committees. BSMG was acquired by IPG in 2001 and merged with Weber Shandwick. Over this time, he worked with leading global clientele such as Hewlett Packard, Cisco Systems, Prudential, Univision, RJR Nabisco, and divisions of GE, Viacom, Toshiba and Samsung, and many others.

In 1988, Kessler co-founded the successful boutique communications agency River Communications of White Plains, NY, which specializes in professional and financial services communications and marketing. Earlier, he became the youngest partner in the history of Rubenstein Wolfson & Company (RW&Co.), a New York public relations agency that was later acquired by Shandwick PLC, where he focused on crisis communications, corporate issues and reputation management.

Kessler graduated from Boston University College of Communication with BS in Journalism and Political Science. He began his career as a Capitol Hill journalist and, later, served as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and press secretary to the late U.S. Representative Ted S. Weiss (D-NY).

He has served as a Visiting Lecturer at the USC Annenberg School of Communications and on the Advisory Board of the USC Annenberg Center for Strategic Public Relations. He sits on the executive board of the Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program and the advisory boards of privately held media production company Big Moving Pictures and online start-up Club Montrachet. Also, Joe is a principal in Option A Advisors, an advisory firm dedicated to assisting marketing agency owners grow and monetize their companies.

He resides in Woodland Hills, CA with his wife and two children.