Barry Wacksman

Barry Wacksman is the Chairman and Chief Revenue Officer of Proto. At Proto, Barry oversees corporate strategy and business development.

He co-founded Proto after a 21+ year career at R/GA, most recently serving as Vice Chairman and Global Chief Strategy Officer. At R/GA, Barry oversaw business development and many of the company’s strategic disciplines. Under Barry’s business development leadership, R/GA grew from a company of fewer than 50 employees in a single office to a global network of over 2,200 employees across 18 offices in 10 countries. He also founded the Business Transformation consulting practice in 2012.

Barry is the co-author of Connected by Design (2014, John Wiley and Sons) where he developed the concept of “Connected Ecosystems” and “Functional Integration” to describe the business models of market leaders like Apple, Google and Amazon as well as the emergence of new categories like the connected home and the connected car. Barry writes and publishes articles in a wide variety of industry publications and presents on topics pertaining to strategy, innovation, design and technology at conferences and events around the world.

Barry serves as Board Chair of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Miami Ad School and serves on the board of directors of the ANA Educational Foundation and Pilobolus Dance Theatre. He graduated from Ohio State University with a B.A. in philosophy and was a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at Syracuse University.