Chuck Donofrio
Chuck Donofrio is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and former president and chief executive officer of Carton Donofrio Partners, Inc., founded in 1964 as Richardson, Myers and Donofrio (RM&D) by Chuck’s father, Hal Donofrio. Chuck’s advertising career began in Seattle at Cole & Weber, a subsidiary of Ogilvy & Mather, where he serviced the Westin Hotels account. From there Chuck went on to work for Young & Rubicam in New York where he managed many clients including General Foods International Coffees and related Maxwell House Divisions, The United Negro College Fund, and Eastern Airlines.
Chuck returned to his hometown of Baltimore in 1983 to join RM&D, where he eventually assumed his father’s role as President and CEO. An early proponent of integrated marketing communications, Chuck was nearly booed off the stage when he gave a presentation on the subject at a 1987 meeting of the Association of National Advertisers. Since then, of course, integration has become a holy grail for marketers.
A true visionary, Chuck understood very early on the importance of technology in advertising—both in the operation of the agency and as a new way to connect with consumers. Through his leadership, the agency developed its first website in 1994 for the Port of Baltimore, leading to the formation of Carton Donofrio Interactive. The new firm was based on the premise that clients and prospects did not believe traditional ad agencies truly understood web technology.
In 1999, Chuck co-founded Context-Based Research Group, an ethnographic research and consulting firm combining the qualitative research skills of cultural anthropologists with the communications and business strategy of marketing experts.
In 2001, after a five year period in which the company doubled in revenue, Chuck led the transformation of RM&D and Carton Donofrio Interactive into Carton Donofrio Partners, a brand experience design firm specializing in advertising, public relations, interactive media, anthropological research, brand consulting, and customer experience management.
As President and CEO of Carton Donofrio Partners, Chuck was highly involved with day-to-day business and intimately involved with fostering a culture of creative thinking.
Chuck is a cum laude graduate of Union College. He served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Goucher College (Towson, Maryland) and as a Director of the Children's Hospital at Sinai Foundation. He was a member of the National Advertising Review Board, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Agency Management Committee. Chuck was also an English professor at the University of Montana.
Chuck is an avid birdwatcher, poet, writer, outdoorsman, and loves to travel. Most importantly, Chuck is a loving husband to Deb and devoted father to three wonderful daughters.
