Dave Saunders is President & Chief Idea Officer of Madison+Main, an integrated communications agency that provides creative marketing solutions for emerging companies. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Dave is a nationally recognized expert in branding & interactive marketing. He frequently speaks to businesses and organizations about the power of the World Wide Web and he is often quoted in print publications and on radio and television news programs.
Dave is a former Advertising & Marketing Director with Media General, coming back to Virginia after 11 years working in Los Angeles. He is the founder of Great American Concepts, an Venice Beach-based advertising and design firm, as well as former Director of the Los Angeles office of Hal Riney & Associates. Before this, Dave previously served as Manager of Times Direct for Tribune Media, parent company of the Los Angeles Times and its internet properties: CareerBuilder, Cars.com and LAtimes.com.
Dave has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he taught the nation’s first undergraduate level course on social media marketing in 2008. Additionally, he leads marketing and social media workshops for VCU’s Center for Corporate Education. In 2009, Dave was honored as a finalist for Business Person of The Year by the US Small Business Administration and was appointed by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to Virginia’s Small Business Commission in 2012.
Dave has been featured and quoted in over 100 print publications (such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Village Voice, The Guardian, Wired Magazine, Richmond-Times Dispatch and many others). He is also a frequent broadcast media source on dozens of radio and television programs, including his regular contributions to CNBC’s Media Money segments. He has also been a guest lecturer at American Press Institute, VCU School of Mass Communications, VCU School of Business, Johns Hopkins University (Bloomberg School of Public Health), University of Richmond, Stanford University, UCLA and Pepperdine University.
2012 Richmond Business Council “Business of the Year”
2012 Telly Award – Best Local TV Ad
2012 Telly Award – Best Use of Humor in a TV Ad
2012 Appointed to Virginia’s Small Business Commission by Governor Bob McDonnell
2010 Society for New Communications Award – Stanford University
2009 Business Person of the Year Nominee – US Small Bus. Admin. (SBA)
2008 Shorty Award for Advertising – Knight Foundation
2008 Ad Person of the Year – Richmond Ad Club
2007 Rotary International Public Relations Award
2005 Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of All Time #37– AdAge
1998 Orson Welles Award for Radio Commercial Production – NAB
1994 Golden MIC in Advertising – California Association of Broadcasters
Dave attended Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Mass Communications and later graduated from University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he received a BA in English (Writing Concentration).