A unique blend of mad scientist & practical shepherd
I am an award winning digital creative leader, with a history of leading highly collaborative cross functional teams. I specialize in working with complex, demanding, and sometimes difficult clients, using my communication skills - and a realistic view of design complexity and effort - to connect and resonate with my clients insuring the best possible project outcomes, and exceptional experiences for their clients.
My work is driven by a dedication to excellence, effective communication, and a deep commitment to guiding clients towards successful design outcomes.
In addition to helping my clients navigate intricate initiatives, I also feel deeply passionate about cultivating creative teams. By creating spaces for junior designers to have a voice, has allowed me to guide our next generation of creative leaders in understanding how to shift and widen their thinking for the future.
I also enjoy riding, racing, and tinkering with my motorcycles.
Select Clients
Thoughts From My Coworkers
Jennifer Borchardt - VP, Experience Financial Service @ Publicis Sapient
“As creative director, Al not only helped provide guidance to the Publicis Sapient & client experience teams by distilling stakeholder feedback into actionable steps, he also was the primary face of the team, presenting the designs and facilitating stakeholder reviews and working sessions. He was exceptionally effective communicating and resonating with our client. Even when facing challenging client behavior he kept a calm and positive approach, listened to the client - and made them feel heard - and communicated design rationale and processes to stakeholders who did not have a lot of experience working with consultants or creative teams. He was instrumental in building a strong and productive partnership with the client's design team, helping foster collaboration and accelerating the creative process while keeping focused through ever-changing direction. Most important, Al built trust with a resistant client and helped put stakeholders at ease. His astute observations, insights, control of the creative process, and sharp design sense kept the team grounded and on track through numerous pivots and aggressive deadlines. This engagement absolutely would not have been successful without Al's efforts and leadership, nor would the client want to extend the work and the team. He was instrumental in building trust, team cohesion, and winning work. The entire team is immensely grateful for Al's contributions to this engagement.”
Julia Sosa - Head of Experience @ Pumpkin
“Al has demonstrated consistent commitment to SapientNitro’s clients–,helping them successfully navigate some of the most complex initiatives. His abilitity to relentlessly challenge the focus of our work, while also being completely empathetic to the demands and realities of a project have proven him time and time again to be an invaluable leader on some of our most challenging projects.
One of the most difficult times to join a project is AFTER the strategic discovery and BEFORE the Define/Design phase. Al graciously assumed a leadership role on a project which had tremendous potential and vision but a restrictive scope and timeline. One of Al’s gifts is the ability to see the both the best possible outcomes and the risks – and to help prioritize a project accordingly.
I watched our client take on a new realization and appreciation for the complexity of their global replatform after just a few meetings with Al. He helped them see the design outcomes they needed wanted, but also the complexity and work that getting there demanded of us – and of their them. It was this realization – that there was no magic bullet or one person/agency that could ensure the success of the relaunch– that I believe truly helped our client rally around the work they needed to assume to ensure the success of their global relaunch. Al has a unique way of demonstrating the value of the work that SapientNitro does while also helping our clients understand and organize around the partnership required of them.”Sunya Ganbold - SVP Regional Delivery Lead @ Member
“Al was instrumental in defining the approach for how we were going to tackle our project's design phase with a globally distributed design team in NYC and Bangalore. He had very little context, but his ability to jump in and define the framework of our approach and experience design show his expertise and also remarkable flexibility in being able to pick things up mid-flight and run with them with utmost commitment.”
