The adventures of Reginald Brack are legendary. He has met with more national leaders and dignitaries than many presidents and remains at the forefront of international matters. His career in publishing and advertising has spanned more than 38 years, and he has served as an extraordinary ambassador for his company and his industry.
Brack joined Time Inc. in 1962 in the advertising sales department of Time. He devised visionary and unusual campaigns for the global marketplace. Assigned to the airline industry, Brack conceived an idea whereby Time would lease a Boeing 707, fill it with top executives from the airline industry and their advertising agencies, and fly to Paris for the annual Air Show. There, Time journalists would host a tutorial on new developments in the industry. The idea had all the hallmarks of the Brack approach: it was visionary, and it involved a sense for the emerging global marketplace. Most important of all, it created an exciting, personally involving journey that broke through the barriers of geography and profession to forge longtime bonds between aerospace executives, ad agencies and journalists.
Soon he was worldwide sales director for Time and director of Time International. He later became the first publisher of Time Inc.¿s science magazine, Discover, and then was asked to take command of the company¿s ailing direct-mail business, Time-Life Books. When Brack arrived there in 1982, the business was losing millions of dollars annually and had not launched a new product successfully in eight years. Two years later, the business was generating a healthy profit and was promoting its most successful series ever.
In 1986 Brack became CEO of Time Inc., but despite the heavy responsibilities of the job, he still found time to promote and support the industry he loved. He served for three years as chairman of the board for the Magazine Publishers of America. He spearheaded the campaign to promote the value of magazines to inform, persuade and sell. He coined the slogan, "Magazines Make Things Happen" and redefined the value of magazines to the public.
Under Brack¿s leadership as CEO, the company¿s magazines grew from eight to 24, revenues doubled and profits began to break records. One of his proudest achievements was launching Entertainment Weekly, the first successful weekly magazine start-up since Time Inc.¿s People Weekly in 1974. He was also the visionary that backed Time Inc.¿s ground-breaking venture on the Internet, the Pathfinder Web site, at a time when the future of the Web was hotly debated.
Brack¿s boundless energy has allowed him to contribute much of his time to public service. He is a former chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America and the Advertising Council, which he continues to serve as director. He is also former chairman of the board of trustees of the National Urban League, trustee of the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. He is a tireless advocate for advertising and its power to transform and improve our culture.