Ali Alvarez has been appointed chief creative officer at advertising agency Omelet. She brings to her new roost extensive experience on the agency and production company sides of the business–and a life experience that transcends all of that.
Mexican-born and L.A.-raised, Alvarez started out as a professional equestrian before attending Art Center College of Design and then making her way to London to begin her career in advertising. After graduation, Alvarez cut her teeth at some major agencies over the next 10 years–Mother, Fallon London, and working her way up to ECD at The Brooklyn Brothers–working on brands including Cadbury, Tate, BBC, Range Rover and Iceland Tourism.
Fast forward to 2012, when Alvarez suddenly found herself unable to remember anything about her life, except a vivid memory of a film she wanted to produce. Enjoying one of her favorite pastimes, horse riding, Alvarez suffered a terrible accident in London, falling from her horse and hitting her head on a rock. The resulting traumatic brain injury (TBI) left Alvarez with no short-term memory.
It wasn’t just her memory that was lost, so was her ability to walk. Alvarez had to start over. And the only thing she could remember was a film idea that had been building in her mind for a documentary about the annual butterfly migration that starts and ends in her home country, Mexico.
On the morning of the accident, Alvarez had filmed herself for the Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project. The idea of creating this film, which would become a way to help grieve the death of her mother, became the single source compelling her to recover as quickly as possible. Producing and directing Muerte Es Vida, her first feature documentary, led Alvarez to discover a love and talent for the production side of the business.
From that experience, Alvarez set out on a new production career path. Her first gig post-accident landed her at production company B-Reel. Since then she’s honed her creative skills with outfits like JustSo, serving as head of creative. Her work has gained award recognition from MTV, Cannes, One Show, FWA, D&AD, the Webbies, and the Emmys.
Her unlikely path has now brought her to Omelet. Alvarez said, “Omelet has a saying ‘Be hard on the work, kind to the people’ and I couldn’t agree more,” said Ali. “I’m excited to bring together the London craft I’ve learned working in all parts of the business, and the life lessons I’ve learned…er…bashing my head! That life made me hesitant to jump back into an agency full time, but I couldn’t pass this up. I hope that tells you how highly I think of the Omelet team. It’s been awhile, but I’m back, L.A. If you’re up for something a little different, if you come from somewhere a little different… ¡Vamos! Let’s get working.”
Alvarez will work across all Omelet clients, including YouTube, Google Play, Princess Cruises, and Walmart, among others.
“It is tremendously rare to find someone with the type of global life and career experiences that Ali brings to the table,” said Omelet CEO Thas Naseemuddeen. “Her ability to truly live a creative life and inspiring those around her with this energy for creativity is something we’re giddy with excitement for. Also, her time spent in London left her with a respect and attention to craft we don’t always see in our market. It’s a breath of fresh air for our advertising community that is so ready for new energy.”
Alvarez is the second C-suite female hire for Omelet in the last three months, joining Zey Taslica who serves as head of production. She joins a leadership team that includes CEO Naseemuddeen, managing director Andrew Kensky, chief strategy officer Pete Talaba, chief marketing officer Sarah Ceglarski, chief digital officer Ricardo Diaz, and CFO Naj Allana. Alvarez assumed her role virtually in January and makes the hop (back) across the pond to L.A. soon, with her partner and 4-year old child in tow.
