Pictured L-R: David Bean, Lesley Brasesco, Jeff Rutchik and Nancy Walsh.
In its continued effort to provide the most personalized and strategic customer experience possible, Freeman has hired four industry leaders to strengthen the competency of its newly created brand experience leadership team. The individuals add to Freeman’s already robust and talented sales roster and will aim to deliver tailored insights and experiences for Freeman’s diverse client base.
“We are committed to understanding the unique needs of all of our clients, from show organizers and event managers to brand marketers—and everything in between,” says Janet Dell, chief growth officer, Freeman. “Brand experience is not one size fits all, and that’s why we’re continuing to invest in talent to help clients deliver the most meaningful, engaging and seamless live experiences for their audiences.”
The new additions to Freeman’s brand experience leadership team include David Bean, Lesley Brasesco, Jeff Rutchik and Nancy Walsh. They bring unique perspectives and valuable insights from their respective careers:
Bean has spent more than three decades in the marketing world, including 28 at George P. Johnson, where he held roles such as senior vice president of client services. He has led large-scale, engaging experiential programs and event strategies from concept to execution for household brands and Fortune 100 companies around the globe—including Motorola, Cessna, RIM/BlackBerry and Chrysler (Jeep, Dodge, Fiat and Magnetti).
Brasesco brings critical insights from the hospitality industry, having spent more than 20 years leading sales account teams at Hilton Worldwide. She’s responsible for developing and directly managing the technology sales vertical, which generated revenues of more than $150 million annually from 2006 to 2009. In 2015, she took on the management of the company’s corporate events team and was a Freeman customer.
Rutchik has been in the event, exhibition and marketing space for more than 35 years and has held various senior leadership positions such as executive vice president, client services worldwide for GPJ. During his tenure there, he led the development of the company’s global agency/client partnership model with IBM, which became the agency’s standard for operating multi-regional/international accounts and served as a key competitive advantage in winning numerous new, ambitious brands. This resulted in consistent year-over-year double-digit annual growth for the agency. His customer-centric approach to creating live brand experiences was a key accelerator for growing the IBM account to revenues of more than $125 million and played a critical role in the execution of more than 2,000 IBM events and trade shows in more than 64 countries, annually. In addition to IBM, he was responsible for the performance of key accounts such as: Salesforce, General Motors, Nissan Group, Cisco, MeadWestvaco, Pfizer, Chobani, Akamai and LG.
Walsh is a 30-year professional in the events industry and will be instrumental in
providing insights and leveraging her experience to help Freeman take its clients’ brand
activations to a new level. She joins the Freeman team from Reed Exhibitions, where she
served as president of Reed North America. During her tenure, Nancy was a valued Freeman
client and guided Reed’s U.S. portfolio through tremendous growth, including double-digit
organic and inorganic growth to the company’s bottom line. As president of Reed North
America, she grew the business 20 percent over a three-year period. She also drove Reed’s
expansion in Mexico, elevating it to the largest event business in the country. In addition, she
led the development of new and innovative events for Reed, such as New York Comic Con and
G2E.
“At Freeman, we’re committed to a customer-first culture and to delivering excellent service for
our clients, large and small,” says Bob Priest-Heck, CEO of Freeman. “With our brand
experience leadership team, we’re bringing in known industry experts to help us gain insights
into our clients’ challenges, help them solve their problems and create opportunities for them to
grow their businesses.”
Freeman is the world’s leading brand experience company. We help our clients design, plan,
and deliver immersive experiences for their most important audiences. Through comprehensive
solutions including strategy, creative, logistics, digital solutions, and event technology, Freeman
helps increase engagement and drive business results. What makes us different is our
collaborative culture, intuitive knowledge, global perspective, and personalized approach,
gained from our 90 years as an industry leader. Freeman is a family-owned company with 90+
locations worldwide and over 4,500 employees, 500 of whom are located outside the U.S. For
more info, visit www.freeman.com.
