Bill Hagelstein

Chief Executive, RPA

As chief executive and president of RPA, Bill Hagelstein oversees one of the largest independent ad agencies in the country. The firm’s client list includes American Honda, ampm, Apartments.com, Arco, CoStar Group, Farmers Insurance Group, La-Z-Boy and Southwest Airlines. RPA’s origins came out of the formation of Omnicom in 1986. That company was born with the merger of BBDO, DDB, and Needham Harper, but since Omnicom would house two other car accounts, three was deemed a crowd. RPA came into being, handling clients such as Acura and Honda.