Mr. John Bernbach is CEO of The Bernbach Group, a business consulting firm.
Twenty-seven of his 33 years in the advertising business were spent at Doyle Dane Bernbach, the last eight as President and COO of DDB Needham Worldwide. In 1986, he was responsible for leading Doyle Dane Bernbach into the merger with Needham Harper Worldwide and BBDO and helping to create the Omnicom Group, the largest, most profitable communications group in the world at that time. He also served on the board as one of Omnicom’s five founding directors. While at Omnicom, he ran all of the domestic and international operations for the newly created DDB Needham.
Subsequently, Mr. Bernbach as CEO of The Bernbach Group, LLC, led this executive management consulting business concentrating on corporate and communications strategies. Bernbach Group clients included the Seagram Spirits & Wine Group, Universal Studios, Power Corporation of Canada and Cossette Communications Group, and The Blackstone Group/Savoy Group of Hotels, where Mr. Bernbach also served on the board. Throughout his career, he helped to develop marketing campaigns and branding strategies for such famous clients as Volkswagen and Audi, Universal Studios, Avis, IBM, Michelin, Porsche, Seiko watches, Chivas Regal Scotch, Martell Cognac and Mumm Champagne.
In 1994 Mr. Bernbach launched and served as Chairman and Director of Avenue China, the first upscale luxury goods magazine published in Chinese and distributed in the four major cities in China, with a circulation of over 45,000. In 1997 Avenue China merged with the French magazine, Joyce, resulting in a new publication known as Joyce Avenue, with editions in China, Japan, France and Spain.
From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Bernbach served as Director, then CEO and Chairman of North American Television, a joint venture between the Power Corporation of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Company. NATV produced and distributed news and English language foreign entertainment programming on two wholly-owned television stations, TRIO and Newsworld International, which were broadcast via satellite on DIRECTV. NATV was successfully sold to Barry Diller’s USA Network.
In 2003 predicting the coming digital revolution in media and communications Mr. Bernbach was Co-Founder, President and COO of NTM (Not Traditional Media) Inc., a marketing and media advisory firm with a data base of over 600 newly created digital media companies to help clients and media companies develop strategies integrating nontraditional marketing solutions and new media models. NTM was ultimately sold to the Engine Group in the UK. Mr. Bernbach served as Vice Chairman of Engine, one of the largest privately-owned independent marketing services companies. Clients of Engine globally included Coca-Cola, Nestle, Unilever, Frito Lay, Warner Bros., American Express, Newscorp, among others.
Mr. Bernbach is also part of a team of diverse corporate executives who founded Distillier LLC of which he is Chairman and developed and introduced Grand Brulot, the esteemed VSOP Cognac and coffee alcoholic beverage, in the US and Europe.
Mr. Bernbach currently serves on the boards of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, where he serves on the Conduct Review, Governance and Nominating Committees, the Great- West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York, where he serves on the Audit Committee; Putnam Investments LLC; Empower Retirement; Power Pacific Corporation Limited; and Casita Maria, a non-profit center for the arts and education serving Hispanic youth in New York. Mr. Bernbach is Chairman of the Board for Ai Media Group, LLC, a non-public digital marketing services company, which is majority owned by The Blackstone Group, and is Chairman of Distillier, LLC, the beverage company who introduced the Grand Brulot product to the market, as well as a Senior Advisor and member of the Executive Committee of BrainLit AB, one of Sweden’s most innovative technology companies.
Mr. Bernbach graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in political science and constitutional law and lives in Bedford, New York with his wife Violaine.
