Clayco hired business executive and civic leader Michael Fassnacht as president of the company’s Chicago region and its first chief growth officer.
Fassnacht will oversee all aspects of the Chicago-area operations, including business development, marketing and sales, and serve as a mentor and coach to the team working alongside him. Additionally, as the chief growth officer, a newly created role, he will support all organizational units to help further elevate Clayco as a world-class B2B marketer to meet its ambitious growth plans for the next decade and beyond.
Fassnacht is a German native with nearly 20 years of experience in Chicago, first as the CEO of one of the largest global advertising firms, Foot Cone & Belding, and most recently as the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer for the City of Chicago and the CEO of World Business Chicago, the city’s economic development entity.
Fassnacht started his career at Lufthansa Airlines in Frankfurt, Germany, and then launched an innovative and successful marketing tech firm in the early 2000s in Silicon Valley. He moved to Chicago in 2006 to lead a highly successful tenure at FCB, increasing its revenue above market growth 10 years in a row and establishing the company as one of the most creatively successful firms globally.
His four-year-long leadership at World Business Chicago drove the organization to double in size, enabled more than 400 ProChicago decisions by corporations who relocated and expanded in the region and positioned World Business Chicago as one of the premier economic development organizations in North America.
Fassnacht serves on numerous civic boards, including the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Civic Consulting Alliance, the Poetry Foundation, and Current. Michael is an avid cyclist, married to well-known Yoga and Mindfulness instructor, Dr.Rhonda Duffaut, and has two college-age children.
