Amir Kassaei

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Amir Kassaei
Born1968 (age 55–56)
Tehran
NationalityAustrian
Occupationart director

Amir Kassaei (born 1968 in Tehran, Iran) is an Austrian art director [1][2][3] He was president of the Art Directors Club of Germany and the Art Directors Club of Europe[4] and president of the film jury at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.[5]

Early years and private life[edit]

Kassaei was born in Tehran, Iran to middle-class parents. When he was 13, in 1981, he was recruited as a child soldier for the Iran–Iraq War.[6] In 1983 his parents paid a human smuggler to get him over the border into Turkey.[7] He applied for asylum at the Austrian embassy in Istanbul and moved to Vienna-Schwechat in Austria[7] to live with a remote relative of his mother. There he spent the rest of his youth and received his high school education. After finishing school with 19, he worked in a hospice for his military alternative service.[8]

Visiting an aunt in Paris he was encouraged by her to apply for a university education in Business administration at the renowned Paris-Est Créteil University in Fontainebleau,[7] working nightshifts as a barkeeper in order to finance his studies. He moved to Germany in 1997.

Amir Kassaei is married to the producer and project manager Marion Kassaei, the couple has a son Vito. Kassaei is father to 3 other children from previous relationships.[7]

Career[edit]

His early career in the advertising business included positions as an Account Manager for L'Oréal in France,[7] and later positions ranging from Strategic Planner and Art Director to Designer, in TBWA Worldwide and Barci & Partner.[9] He then joined the German advertising agency Springer & Jacoby in 1997,[7] at that point one of the major advertising agencies in Germany. He advanced from copywriter to Creative Director and finally to Executive Creative Director with the global clients Mercedes-Benz and Smart.[10]

In 2003 Kassaei changed companies to DDB Worldwide as Associate Partner of DDB Germany[11] and in 2011, he moved to the headquarter of DDB Worldwide in New York City as Chief Creative Officer.[7] During this time he created campaigns for brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, Allianz, Apple Inc., Adidas, Reebok,[12] Nike, Inc., Bosch, Volkswagen and McDonald's.[9] In 2012 he moved the creative headquarters of DDB Worldwide to Shanghai.[13] Between 2011 and 2019, Kassaei was the youngest and first non-American[7] Global Chief Creative Officer to head DDB Worldwide. During this time, DDB was one of the most internationally awarded advertising networks.[14][15]

In 2017 he founded the agency C14torce (pronounced: Catorce) in Barcelona, Spain, which he had built up exclusively for the car brand SEAT. By the end of 2019 the firm had more than 400 employees with offices in 7 countries.[16]

In 2020, after about 30 years in the business, Kassaei retired from the advertising industry.[17][18] Most recently, he founded the architecture and design company Buresq.[19] The BuresQ loft in Barcelona was honored with a Frame Award in 2020.[20] Kassaei is also working on his fashion brand H4H and is building up The Maniacs, a content production company that will supply streaming service.[1][21]

Awards[edit]

During his career Kassaei has received (together with his creative teams) numerous awards, including 140 Cannes Lions.[22][23] The official chart of the Cannes Lions Archive attributes 109 Lions and nominations to Kassaei personally (2020).[24] In 2009 he was named The Big Won Report's Top Chief Creative Officer.[25] At that time he was regarded as one of the most successful advertising creatives internationally.[26][15] Douglas Quenqua of Campaign magazine UK lists the awards of DDB Worldwide in 2016 under Kassaei's leadership as follows: "... the network took home 101 Cannes Lions, up from 78 in 2015; it won 32 pencils at the D&AD awards, down from 40 in 2015; and it claimed the same number of pencils at this year's One Show—23—as it did in 2015."[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Bialek, Catrin (2020-05-28). "Werbebranche: Der einstige Topwerber Amir Kassaei gründet jetzt Unternehmen". handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  2. ^ "Amir Kassaei". forward-festival.com. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  3. ^ Löhr, Julia (2011-06-26). "Amir Kassaei: Karriere durch Anecken". faz.net (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  4. ^ Jacob, Elke (2012-06-08). "Amir Kassaei zum Präsidenten des ADC of Europe gewählt". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  5. ^ Prange, Sven (2009-08-06). "Werbung: Amir Kassaei: Geliebt und gehasst". handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  6. ^ Laurence, Carly (2016-03-17). "Vom Kindersoldaten zum Kreativchef: Top-Werber Amir Kassaei verrät seine Erfolgsformel". Business Insider (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Boldt, Klaus (2011-05-11). "Werbemann Kassaei: Ein Weiser aus dem Morgenland". spiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  8. ^ Prange, Sven (2009-06-14). "Neue Ideen für eine Krisenbranche: Amir Kassaei: Der kreative Zerstörer". handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  9. ^ a b Blanaru, Cristina (2012-06-20). "Amir Kassaei, Chief Creative Officer DDB International – the new Art Directors Club Europe (ADC*E) president". AdHugger.net. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  10. ^ "Author: Amir Kassaei". campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  11. ^ Kassaei, Amir (2013-10-03). "A view from the top". campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  12. ^ Macleod, Ishbel (2013-01-15). "Reebok appoints DDB Worldwide as global agency of record". The Drum. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  13. ^ "DDB moves global chief creative officer to Shanghai". The Drum. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  14. ^ Dua, Tanya (2016-10-24). "From child soldier to creative chief: DDB's Amir Kassaei's hard-knocks guide to an ad career". digiday.com. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  15. ^ a b c Quenqua, Douglas (2016-12-14). "The 10 Essential Advertising People of the Year: No. 8 Amir Kassaei". campaignlive.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  16. ^ Unckrich, Bärbel (2017-11-06). "Crossover-Premiere : So wirbt C14torce für den neuen Seat Arona". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  17. ^ Boldt, Klaus (2020-03-12). ""Ich bin von Natur aus auf Koks"". welt.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  18. ^ Amirkhizi, Mehrdad (2019-01-24). "Amir Kassaei im Interview: "Den Titel 'Enfant terrible' haben Sie mir gegeben"". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  19. ^ Amirkhizi, Mehrdad (2020-05-28). "Amir Kassaei: So sieht das erste Architektur-Projekt des ehemaligen Werbers aus". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  20. ^ "Loft BuresQ". Frame Awards. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  21. ^ Schütz, Volker (2020-06-03). "Volker fragt: Warum muss der Kapitalismus reformiert werden, Amir Kassaei?". horizont.net (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  22. ^ "Amir Kassaei | D&AD Member Profile". www.dandad.org. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  23. ^ red. (2020-02-17). "Amir Kassaei macht endgültig Schluss mit Werbung". derstandard.at (in German). Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  24. ^ "The Work | People | Amir Kassaei". The Work. Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  25. ^ Breyer, Conrad (2010-01-06). "The Big Won: Amir Kassaei bester Kreativchef der Welt". www.wuv.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-11.
  26. ^ Steinkirchner, Peter (2010-03-23). "Amir Kassaei: Neue Wege in der Werbung". wiwo.de (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-11.
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