Ron Seichrist, Cofounder, M.AD SCHOOL

Ron started his career as a designer and in his mid-20s was featured in Communication Arts magazine and magazines in Germany and Japan. He shifted to art direction working in agencies in Richmond and NYC. Europe called and he left the States for creative director roles in Frankfurt, Munich and London.

Coming back to the USA, he started his own agency, then began teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he became the youngest full professor and then Dean of the Design Division. During this time he envisioned a new type of education that mirrored the industry and prototyped this idea at MCAD. His graduates were very successful even so far as being inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Ron headed to warmer weather to make this new educational model a reality, and started Portfolio Center in Atlanta. There all the instructors were industry professionals instead of academics and he developed the first copywriting program in the world that teamed art direction and copywriting students. Ron was featured in ADWEEK magazine as “one who changed advertising in the South.” After ten years he sold his interest in the school he had founded. In 1993 he and his wife Pippa headed farther south to start Miami Ad School, where they developed more educational innovations including, in 1995, the first Strategic Planning training program. M.AD has grown from that first location in Miami to a global network of 15 schools in 10 countries. Ron was honored by the New York Art Directors’ Club Hall of Fame for his commitment to education and also received the Mosaic Award for Diversity.

In 2020 Miami Ad School changed its moniker to M.AD SCHOOL of IDEAS to better reflect the school’s mission.