About CBA

Each year, we hand-select a group of founders and brands we believe in to build and activate their companies for growth. Our roster spans industries and geographies, united by a common understanding that strong brands increase enterprise value. Because we’ve built our model on a different chassis—leveraging a seasoned collective of marketers and makers and deploying them “on-demand”—we’re able to work with our clients strategically, efficiently, effectively and confidentially, delivering the speed and agility they expect from partners.

Brad Kay

Brad is the Founder of Chief Brand Advisory. He’s also the lead Chief Brand Advisor to our clients. Brad is a recognized marketing leader with 20+ years of experience building brands and executing growth strategies that increase sales, profit, customer satisfaction and retention.

He’s a trusted advisor and results-oriented marketer with a proven track record of leading Founders, CEOs and executive teams through change, transformation and innovation. His diverse background in digital, social media, and e-commerce marketing enables him to guide global brands on how to market in a world now defined by experiences and highly networked, empowered audiences.

Most recently, Brad was the Chief Brand Officer at Convene, a high-growth, profitable, hospitality brand and workplace experience platform with 29 locations across 6 US markets. He re-defined Convene's brand vision, positioning, go-to-market strategy and customer experience journey alongside other key functions of the company. During his tenure, Convene raised $150mm (for a total of $400mm in private funding), experienced double digit sales and revenue growth, achieved an industry leading +89% Net Promoter Score (NPS), and was ranked one of America’s Most Promising Companies and Best Places To Work by Forbes and Inc. Magazine, respectively.

Brad came to Convene after serving as the President | Partner of SS+K, an advertising agency owned by M&C Saatchi. He played a leading role in building and selling the agency. During his nearly 10 years at the firm, Brad developed award-winning campaigns across multiple industries, including rolling out Kraft Mio, the most successful product launch in the food and beverage giant’s history; bringing the Chevy Volt – General Motors’ first electric car – to market; and launching Jet.com, among other achievements. Prior to SS+K, Brad was the Executive Vice President and Executive Director of FCB’s digital practice and a member of the agency’s leadership team.

Brad has been recognized by both Forbes and Business Insider as one of a select group of CMOs to Watch. He has spoken at the Cannes Lions Festival, been featured in Departures Magazine, Business Insider, Digiday, and The Drum, judged for the Clio and Effie Awards, led panels for the IAB and Flipboard and written for Fast Company, Adweek and The Hub. He has also served as a board member and chairman of the digital committee for the Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF).