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 generall ...

DDB Worldwide DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...

. Born in

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...

and raised in

Watertown, Connecticut Watertown is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was 22,105 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Waterbury. The urban center of the town is the Wat ...

, 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. The college be ...

. 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, 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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-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 The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) is a U.S. trade association for advertising agencies which was founded in 1917. It serves over 600 member agencies across 1,200 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising ...

. He died at his home in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

, 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