Dan Madinabeitia
77a Black River Rd, Long Valley, New Jersey 07853
cell: 551-482-0980 email: dan@danmadinabeitia.com
In my youth I was an award-winning art student. What followed was a two-decade journey — from freelance graphic artist in New York City to Vice President of Brand and Design at Informa Connect, the largest division of Informa, a multi-billion dollar FTSE 500 company headquartered in London. Along the way the company transformed repeatedly, and I led through every one of those transitions. Based in New York, I worked closely with London headquarters while developing campaigns across virtually every industry — finance, pharma, healthcare, manufacturing, fashion, entertainment — on every continent, from Beijing to Barcelona, Dubai to Brazil. I also created FUSE Calls, a podcast series where I interviewed heads of branding and design from Nike, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, 20th Century Fox, GE and Starwood, to name a few.
Years before leaving Informa I had developed an idea — a system for generating high volumes of brand-perfect design output rapidly and consistently. It became a patent-pending passion project. But the bigger leap was deciding to bet on myself entirely — to take the creative and brand expertise I had built over two decades and channel it into something of my own. In 2020 Willem LLC was born, built on the belief that great branding shouldn't be elitist — that aesthetic communication should be available to every business, not just the ones who can afford a Manhattan agency. I call the approach "Mad Men meets McDonald's." Willem has maintained strong margins and remained profitable every year since launch.
Six years in, I find myself exactly where I always gravitated — at the intersection of creativity, technology and business. The tools have caught up with the thinking. What comes next is the most interesting part.