One of advertising’s most influential creative partnerships is entering a new chapter. Rich Silverstein, the co-founder and co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, will step away from day-to-day operations at the end of 2026 after 43 years at the San Francisco agency he built with Jeff Goodby. Silverstein will transition to Founder and Chairman Emeritus.
Silverstein and Goodby founded GS&P in 1983 after meeting at Ogilvy & Mather in San Francisco. Their first client was the company they helped rename Electronic Arts, and the agency would go on to create some of the most recognizable work in modern advertising, including “got milk?” and the Budweiser Lizards.
Silverstein, 77, came to advertising through art direction and design. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, he worked at Rolling Stone, Bozell & Jacobs, McCann Erickson, Foote, Cone & Belding and Ogilvy & Mather before launching GS&P with Goodby. Over the years, his influence helped establish the agency as both a creative and design powerhouse.
“I’m so proud of everyone who has come through GS&P and everyone who’s still here,” Silverstein said in announcing the move. “It has always been about the people, and it always will be.”
Goodby, who will remain Founder and Chairman, paid tribute to the partner who has been by his side for more than four decades. “You can’t imagine what it’s like to be around the always-on, 200-mph high standards machine that is Rich Silverstein,” Goodby said. “He has made me intensely better for 43 years, and he has given me a license of freedom I never gave myself.”
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The transition comes as GS&P operates from a position of strength. The agency posted double-digit revenue growth in the first half of 2026 and added 10 new brands, including Rao’s, NBA 2K and Maruchan. This year, it also won Best of Show at the American Advertising Awards for Doritos’ “Telethon for Hawkins,” marking the agency’s second consecutive year taking the top honor.
The rest of the agency’s senior leadership remains in place. Sarah Thompson continues as CEO, Margaret Johnson as Chief Creative Officer, Christine Chen as Chief Strategy Officer and Brian McPherson as managing director. Jeff Goodby remains Founder and Chairman.
Silverstein leaves behind a career stacked with industry recognition. He was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2002 and The One Club Creative Hall of Fame in 2004. He and Goodby received the Cannes Lion of St. Mark for lifetime achievement in 2019 and later appeared together in an 18-part MasterClass.
But his influence is probably easier to measure in the work itself. GS&P spent four decades proving that big-brand advertising could be funny, beautifully designed, culturally disruptive and, at its best, nearly impossible to separate from pop culture.
Silverstein summed up his own approach more simply in a recent interview with Muse, saying every assignment felt like “life or death,” regardless of its size.
After 43 years, the name on the door isn’t changing.
But one of the people who put it there is finally stepping back. REEL 360 News wishes Rich the best of luck.
