In his 40+ years in the advertising business, Ralph Rydholm has worn a lot of hats. He has been a writer, an account exec, a creative director, a CEO, and chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. But most of all, he has been a premier brand builder. He has launched new brands, repositioned older ones and won more than his share in the highly competitive new business area.

Currently, Ralph is president of R2 Consulting, which he formed after retiring from Euro RSCG Tatham as CEO and Euro RSCG USA as director. Ralph came to Tatham Laird & Kudner from Ted Bates Advertising in New York City, where he worked globally on such accounts as the U.S. Navy, Xerox, Colgate, Panasonic and Prudential. Prior to Bates, Ralph spent 20 years at J. Walter Thompson, where he worked internationally in Europe, South America, Canada and Asia on clients such as Pepsi, Ford, Burger King, Kellogg and Kraft. Along the way, Ralph has worked in every aspect of the advertising business, from print to television, direct response to the Internet.

Ralph has been named one of “America’s 100 Best Creative People” by Ad Daily twice, the Wall Street Journal’s “Creative Leaders Hall of Fame” in 1994, “Ad Exec Of the Year” for 1990 by Adweek, one of the five “Best Men in Advertising” by McCall’s and Adweek in 1992, and was CEO when Tatham was named “Midwest Agency of the Year” by Adweek. As a cap to his many hats, Ralph was on the Board of the 4A’s for six years, served as vice chair, and was named chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1997.

He is a member and former director of The Economic Club of Chicago and a member of the President’s Circle of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Executives Club of Chicago. A graduate of Northwestern University, Ralph did graduate MBA work at NU and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is happily married to Jo with 3 grown children. A native Chicagoan with a passion for sports, he has always been a dedicated Cubs, Bears, Bulls, Hawks and NU Wildcats fan, and remains a dedicated skier and a lousy golfer.