Meet the Partners

Aug 25, 2008

Harold Sogard

Partner, Vice-Chairman (with GS&P for 17 years)

A former producer on Broadway, Harold Sogard is a big part of the agency’s success at new business.He sees it as another creative process. “There are a lot of facets to creativity,” he contends. “On the account side of the business, we have the ultimate responsibility for making sure that the creative product fits with the client’s business needs. And we also have to make sure that the clients understand that this seemingly whacked-out campaign actually is the product of sound strategic thinking on our part. There’s a fair amount of creativity that goes into that, I think.”

    Besides the creativity that infuses everything at GS&P, Sogard cites another secret to the agency’s success: “This is a place that values team,” he says. “There’s a no-asshole policy here, and people know that they can count on an environment that allows them to do their best work, to be treated fairly and to be respected both professionally and personally. That’s been a real secret to our success.”

*THE BOSS’S REMARKS: Harold has a unique ability to get people to be honest about whether the pitch makes any sense, whether it's really any good. Sometimes this happens at the last minute, and it's pretty confrontational. But somehow everyone emerges energized and united. It's invaluable.



Linda Harless

Associate Partner/Director of Creative Resources (21 years)

In 1988, Linda Harless answered an ad in Adweek’s classified section for an “assistant to the principals of one of San Francisco’s hottest ad agencies.”

    “I was sold on the agency at the very first meeting,” she says. She started on the account side of the business, but the self-described “frustrated creative” got her chance to be fulfilled when former agency co-chief Andy Berlin began spending more time on bringing in new business and the agency needed someone to fill the void in the creative department. Her switch, she contends, is symbolic of the agency’s willingness to allow employees the flexibility to find their true calling.

    “I’ve seen a lot of young people come here and do the most amazing things that they actually weren’t even hired for,” she says. “This place was grown that way, and there’s still a strong element of it today.”

*THE BOSS’S REMARKS: I talked with someone in Asia when I was there who said, "Oh, we ALL know Linda! Are you kidding?" She is the world creative den mother, I think. Her relationships with big-name creative people, from all over, are invaluable to us. Especially in a world where great creatives often move around like baseball—I mean, soccer—players.




Cindy Fluitt

Associate Partner/Director of Broadcast Production (20 years)

The very first campaign Cindy worked on in 1987 was just like the one she just worked on—and that’s a good thing. “They have all been full of great ideas, a commitment to excellence, and I got to work with the smartest people on the planet. This is a great place to work and grow because every day is a new day. And they always involve some sort of adventure.”

    Fluitt’s adventures with the agency began as a freelancer. One year later, she was hired full-time as a broadcast producer. Many campaigns later, she segued in 2005 from her producing duties to managing the broadcast production department, which has grown exponentially thanks to a steady stream of new business.

    “When I started here, we had 11 employees. Now there are nearly 40 just in the broadcast production department,” she said. “And our work, like media in general, has changed exponentially to include not just TV but radio, the Internet and other new-media avenues. So, now it’s anything, everywhere, and that has helped keep things exciting for me.”

    “I’ve spent more time with Jeff and Rich than any other men in my life, and that includes husbands,” Fluitt says with a laugh. “And their humanity and passion…is there every day. They still don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty if there’s a problem. I’ve never felt an instance of their collective vision for the agency shifting.”

*THE BOSS’S REMARKS: Fluitt is the head of the most complicated department in this building (including the creative department). Broadcast is larger than our whole company was just ten years ago, and changing and recombining at lightning speed. She makes sure it all happens with our DNA intact.



Suzee Barrabee

Associate Partner/Director of Print Production (20 years)

Suzee Barrabee got her big break when she was hired as a freelancer to fill in for a woman in GS&P’s print production and art buying department who was going on maternity leave—and then didn’t come back. “It was the happiest day of my life when she decided not to come back to work,” recalls Barrabee.

    Barrabee joined Max Fallon and doubled the size of the department, which now comprises 38 employees. She’s headed it up since Fallon retired four years ago, but she hasn’t forgotten his influence: “Max was great to work with and work for,” she says. “It was his master stroke to keep print production and art buying together, which isn’t the case at most agencies.”

    That setup, she says, allows Goodby staffers to be involved at the very beginning of creative conception on a print campaign when the art buying occurs and stay with the project through completion. “Because of that, we’ve developed a good reputation with the art community, with the photographers, the illustrators and so on,” Barrabee says. “And I think that makes a big difference.”

*THE BOSS’S REMARKS: It’s wonderful to see a person grow from being a line producer to the head of a department, right before your eyes. Suzee has done that by being the best print producer in the place and thereby garnering the respect of everyone around her. She is the ultimate example of management by best competence.



Keith Anderson

Associate Partner/Director of Design and Interactive (15 years)

The decision to keep Goodby, Silverstein & Partners centralized in San Francisco—and only San Francisco—has had a major impact on the company’s sustaining its creative vibrancy. At least that’s how Keith sees it.

    “I think the immediate proximity to so many different types of minds has had everything to do with this agency flourishing for 25 years,” says Anderson. “This city is known for forging into new areas, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that that’s what this agency is known for as well.”

    Anderson parlayed a keen personal interest in emerging technologies into a series of professional initiatives that helped make Goodby, Silverstein one of the hottest shops in interactive media.

    “One of the great things about this place is that you get a chance to define your own role rather than just have it dictated to you,” he says. “So, if someone is really interested in something—and it has some sort of down-the-road potential for the agency—you can really go after it. Technology was like that for me. And, as an agency, that’s kind of what we feed on.”

    Anderson credits his bosses for having the trust and confidence in their employees to allow their passions to flourish. Passion, he says, is “the DNA of this place.”

*THE BOSS’S REMARKS: Keith is the quiet storm. He'll come and tell me when things aren't up to the standards here—even when they're things I'm overseeing myself. He's a conscience for us all. And he works as hard as any human, anywhere.

*All “Boss’s remarks” are from Jeff Goodby

For more Goodby, Silverstein & Partners coverage:
A Note from Lee Clow
Just regular guys: Silverstein and Goodby
Q & A with Jeff Goodby
Q & A with Rich Silverstein
Meet the Partners
The Client is Always Right
25 Years