People
Andy Berkenfield
“Je m’appelle Andy. Je suis le general manager.” He might not say it that way – but the point is, he could. Partner Berkenfield lived near Paris from the age of seven until 14, where he became fluent in French (and in wine), while developing the internationalist viewpoint that has well-served Duncan/Channon’s global brands.
Andy is one of the only guys in the advertising business with an advertising degree, earned from the distinguished Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He cut his marketing teeth (they’re just behind the canines) working on packaged goods at multinationals in New York, then moved to San Francisco to get into retail and image brands. At Foote, Cone & Belding/SF, he held senior jobs running Taco Bell, Levi’s and the $100 million Sega Dreamcast launch. Joining D/C in 2000, he brought a new level of strategic leadership and led giant-killing pitches for Clos du Bois, Network Associates (now McAfee), Birkenstock and others.
His sick, secret life as a shoe fetishist, revealed in a photograph of his 13 pairs of Birkenstock sandals, proved especially compelling in that pitch, much as his French-born oenophilia has been inordinately valuable for wine clients. Andy is also D/C’s resident camera expert, with a collection that rivals that of his shoes, and a closet IT guy with a nerdy passion for flight simulators. To add to this troubling portrait, Andy once went 11 days without bathing – which doesn’t seem to have precluded his becoming father of two with his (apparently) long-suffering wife Suzanne.
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