Strategic advertising agency MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER has hired Dean Casalena as director of technology. He brings over 12 years of engineering and leadership experience to the agency, having worked with numerous high-profile brands such as Coca-Cola, Disney, and Microsoft, and has contributed to technological breakthroughs. In his new role, Casalena will engage in strategic discussions with clients, bringing technical insight and practical engineering direction that will push digital projects to completion and success.
Casalena’s technological accomplishments include building a prototype of a video analytics system to attract a seed round of investment ($1M+) for a cloud start-up; writing a self-regulating traffic management algorithm; and building a location-based server-load-balancing system. He has headed up UX and UI at various companies and helped develop and patent technologies relating to video security and advanced streaming (automatic bitrate adjustment).
“Advertising is tightly coupled with an extremely fast-changing technology landscape,” said Casalena. “I’m thrilled to be joining an agency that not only accepts this reality, but is inspired by the possibilities it brings. I’m also looking forward to being a part of the culture established by their leadership, which includes a relentless pursuit of excellence.”
Prior to joining MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER, Dean worked on projects for high-profile brands including Lego, Sony, Ralph Lauren, Doubletree, Lays, Johnnie Walker, ABC, Acura, Axe, Budweiser, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Clorox, ESPN, Fisher-Price, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, IHOP, Land Rover, Levi’s, Nestle, Nickelodeon, Nissan, Pampers, Paramount, SpaceX, Tide, Tostitos, Toyota, Ubisoft, Verizon and Walmart.
Casalena is originally from South Africa, where he began his career in technology and advertising in high school.
