Aaron Starkman

Agency: Rethink

Canada & USA

This year Aaron and the executive leadership team implemented a new policy that recognizes the role pets play in people’s mental well-being. In September, Rethink did something unheard of when it comes to Agency benefits when they announced they are covering pet insurance for the entire Rethink staff.

Free Pet Insurance was inspired by previous respect-led initiatives like Independent’s week (A mandatory paid week off for all Rethinkers in the first week of July) and “No Meeting Mondays”, Aaron’s Agency-wide policy that bans client meetings on Mondays if a creative presentation falls on a Monday. Aaron also led Rethink to become Adage’s Creative Agency of year (2nd time in the last 3 years), the #2 ranked Independent agency in the world in Cannes this year, a top 3 Indy network in the world in Cannes this year (which is 3 years in a row making Rethink the only agency to accomplish this, accumulating 37 lions on 17 different clients during that span). This past year Rethink won 14 Lions for 5 different clients. Rethink added 16 new clients and recorded its highest top-line revenue in its history, representing a 51% increase in revenue over the past two years.