Alex Schill, global chief creative officer and partner of Serviceplan Group, has been named 2020 executive jury president of the New York Festivals International Advertising Awards®.
This is the 10th year NYF’s executive jury will come together and the second year a jury president will preside over this elite panel of CCOs and executive creative directors from around the globe. Schill, along with the 2020 executive jury, will convene in New York City for four days (March 31-April 3) to select the World’s Best Advertising® across all mediums.
Schill brings 25 years of global leadership skills, innovation and creativity to his role as executive jury president. He thoroughly understands the demands of judging NYF’s finalist entries as he previously served as an executive jury member for three consecutive terms.
As global CCO and partner of Serviceplan Group, Schill has led the entire agency group worldwide since 2008. He is presently in charge of more than 24 agency locations in cities from Beijing to Zurich leading a global team of 4,200 employees.
In 2018, Serviceplan was featured in the Top 50 most creative agencies worldwide in the Gunn Report. In 2019 the Serviceplan Group was named Independent Agency of the Year at New York Festivals, Cresta Awards and London International Awards. And in recent years Schill has won numerous accolades and honors racking up more than 75 Cannes Lions, including two Grands Prix for the agency trophy shelf. He is a sought-after speaker on the international creative awards circuit and has given keynote speeches at Cannes, Eurobest, Dubai Lynx and the Loerie Awards.
Schill is no stranger to awards show judging, having served multiple stints as jury president at Cannes Lions, CLIO, Eurobest, LIA and at D&AD.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More