Rick Boyko, former Chief Creative Officer and Co-President of Ogilvy & Mather North America, joined the VCU Adcenter on July 1, 2003 as its managing director. In addition to teaching, he is responsible for financial and

personnel management, as well as fundraising and outreach to individuals and firms in the advertising industry.

In the years since Rick has become its director, the school has changed quite dramatically. Its curriculum has evolved to include, in addition to Art Direction and Copywriting, three new tracks: Communications Strategy,

Creative Brand Management and, in 2008, Creative Technology. The student body has grown from 100 graduate students to 205 and the faculty from four professors to twelve. This change was capped off on January 14, 2008 with the changing of the school’s name from VCU Adcenter to VCU Brandcenter. Also in January 2008, the school moved into its new home, an open, creative and collaborative breeding ground designed by world-renowned architect, Clive Wilkinson.

These changes have not gone unnoticed and in 2005, the Adcenter was ranked the number 1 advertising program in the country by Advertising Age’s Creativity magazine. Number 1 in all three categories: innovation, program quality, and graduate quality. In 2007, BusinessWeek recognized the school’s unique curriculum and named it one of the sixty best business/design schools in the world. Also in 2009, VCU Brandcenter won the O’Toole Award for Creative Excellence.

The business world has taken notice as well, awarding the Brandcenter real assignments for its students from companies like Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, The Learning Channel, Tourism Industry of America, Business for Diplomatic Action, Newspaper Association of America, AICP, Virginia Tourism, The Gettysburg Foundation, Boy Scouts of America, UNICEF’s Tap Project for Richmond, and Radio Advertising Bureau.

Rick began his career in 1974 as an art director at Leo Burnett Chicago and moved to Chiat/Day Los Angeles in the 1980s. He joined Ogilvy & Mather New York in 1989 and in 1997 was named Chief Creative Officer and Co-President of Ogilvy’s $1.5 billion flagship New York office. The following year Rick was also named North American Chief Creative Officer. He ascended to that post with a mission: to reclaim the creative ethos of legendary founder David Ogilvy. He worked to seamlessly integrate the efforts of Ogilvy’s creative departments throughout the North American network and started many new initiatives to set Ogilvy apart from its competition.

While Rick has won almost every advertising award there is, he feels most proud of two accomplishments unrelated to advertising. First, in May 2001, in honor of his career achievements, Rick was awarded the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Then, in October 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy, Rick conceived of and was the driving force behind “Brotherhood,” a tabletop book honoring the 343 firemen who perished. It sold more than 200,000 copies and the proceeds of $1.5 million went to the families of the firemen. In light of Brotherhood’s contributions to the Fire Department of New York, Rick was designated an Honorary Deputy Chief in the FDNY.

An active member of the VCU Brandcenter Board of Directors since 2000, he was honored on behalf of Ogilvy & Mather when they were inducted into VCU’s Founders’ Society. In 2008 Rich and his wife, Barbara, gifted the Brandcenter one million dollars. He currently sits on the board of Butler Shine Stern & Partners, he is on the advisory committee of the Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), and is also the Dean of the Roger Hatchuel Cannes Academy. He has previously sat on the boards of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Napster.

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