Craig Markus, chief creative officer at Proof Advertising, died on August 8 after several weeks in a New York hospital battling Guillain-Barré syndrome. His age was not reported.
Markus’ creative career spanned Ogilvy as an art director, Deutsch NY as a creative director, Cramer-Krasselt NY as an executive creative director, and McCann New York. At the latter he served as an ECD as well as creative lead of that agency’s youth/young adult marketing division, TAG, which helped launch Microsoft’s Xbox.
Over the course of his career, Markus was creative lead for global brands including Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Nike and Levi’s. He also was the founder of branding studio Rage, Grace & Partners.
Bryan Christian, president of Austin, Tex.-based Proof, shared in a social media post, “Craig brought a joyful and passionate spirit to work each day. He was a great boss to his teams, a great co-worker to all at Proof and a great friend and mentor for me.”
Markus and Christian reunited at Proof. They first worked together at McCann. As ECD at McCann, Markus had a hand in helping win the U.S. Army account, for which the lauded “Army Strong” campaign was created.
Markus had degrees in communication from UCLA, and in design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. He also held an MBA from Steinbeis University’s Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Markus is survived by, among others, two adult sons, Dean and Luke.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTE®,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
“SMPTE’s membership has spoken,” said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann D’Amato. “These officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!”
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More