Israel Diaz
Chief Creative Officer, Y&R Canada
It was a little over 20 years ago that Israel was studying and interning to become an architect when three things conspired to get him to switch career paths: the TV series thirtysomething, a magazine article he stumbled upon about “the glamorous, fast-paced life” of Charles Saatchi and the fact that Israel realized he did not enjoy the excessive math required in architecture.
Today, he’s very thankful he followed his instincts, dropped out and pursued advertising instead.
And although it has become abundantly clear that real life advertising is very different from the Hollywood version, Israel thrives on the constantly changing and evolving nature of the art and commerce world. He frankly cannot see himself doing anything else, nor is he very good at anything else.
Over the years, Israel has had the good fortune to help build some of the world’s most iconic brands: Nike, McDonald’s, Stella Artois, Mercedes-Benz, Blackberry, Visa, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Kellogg’s to name a few.
His work has been recognized in all major international award shows including D&AD, Cannes, One Show, Clios, London International, ADC, The Andys, World Press Awards, Communication Arts and Advertising and Design Club of Canada.
Israel joined Y&R Canada in February 2011 as Chief Creative Officer to co-manage the Agency with business partner Chris Jordan. And he is thrilled to be given the mandate and challenge to dramatically increase the creative reputation of the Agency internationally.
Prior to joining Y&R, Israel had worked at some of the Canada’s leading agencies:
David&Goliath, where Israel was ECD and given the responsibility to open up the Toronto office. Leo Burnett where he was ranked #2 Creative Director in the country by Strategy Magazine in 2010, #4 Top Creative Director globally by the 2009 Big Won Report and where he won Canada’s first ever D&AD Black Pencil in Digital for breakthrough work for the leoburnett.ca website. This project was also honored as the most awarded website in the world for 2006.
Other notable agencies he’s had the privilege of working at include Lowe Roche, Cossette, GJP and Bozell Palmer Bonner where he started his career as a Jr. Art Director.
Ironically however, he has yet to step foot inside a Saatchi&Saatchi office.
