A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. This position is responsible for the overall look and feel of all materials, media, and branding associated with the organization. A chief creative officer may also be referred to as a creative director or a lead designer, however depending on the size of the company a chief creative officer may have several creative directors or lead designers as his/her subordinates.

Some chief creative officers include: Clive Davis of Sony Music Entertainment, Hugh Hefner of Playboy Enterprises, Geoff Johns of DC Entertainment, John Lasseter of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, and Joe Quesada of Marvel Entertainment.

Alan Shapiro (born 1952) is an American poet and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of nine poetry books, including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive and Busy. He received the Kingsley Tufts Award and the Los Angeles Book Prize. He was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2005, Shapiro won the North Carolina Book Award for poetry, for Tantalus In Love.

Alan Shapiro was elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to poetry, Alan Shapiro has also published two personal memoirs, Vigil and The Last Happy Occasion.

Mark Rolston (born December 7, 1956) is an American actor.

Rolston played PFC M. Drake in Aliens (1986), Hans in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Stef in RoboCop 2 (1990), Bogs Diamond in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), J. Scar in Eraser (1996), Chief Dennis Wilson in Daylight (1996), Wayne Bryce in Hard Rain (1998) and Special Agent in Charge Warren Russ in Rush Hour (1998). Rolston also acted in Martin Scorsese's 2006 film The Departed and the television horror film Backwoods. Many of Rolston's screen roles are villains due to his trademark icy stare. He also co-starred in 2008's Saw V and 2009's Saw VI.

In 1994, he portrayed convicted killer "Karl Mueller" in the Babylon 5 episode "The Quality of Mercy," as well as "Richard Odin," leader of a vegetarian cult in an episode of the X-Files called "Red Museum." He was also originally considered to voice the supervillain Firefly in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, though the character was deemed unsuitable for the series and ultimately dropped. Rolston would later voice Firefly in the revamp, The New Batman Adventures, as well as Justice League.

Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an advertising executive and was one among of the most 'creative' men in the advertising business. The 19th Century was dominated by the copy-heavy ads with lengthy product descriptions and selling arguments, however, he developed fresh simple icons that came to symbolize easy-to-understand product benefits for the 20th-century consumer. He was known for being heavily involved in the Creative Revolution in the 1960s, with other great advertising heads like David Ogilvy, William Bernbach and Mary Wells. Burnett was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Born in St. Johns, Michigan, his parents were Noble and Rose Clark Burnett. His father ran a dry goods store and as a youth, Burnett worked with his father in the store. He grew up watching his father designing ads to promote his business. During high school, he worked as a reporter for a local, rural newspaper in the summers. After high school he went to study journalism at the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor's degree in 1914. His first job was as a reporter at the Peoria Journal in Peoria, Illinois. After realizing the future growth possibilities in advertising, he moved to Detroit in 1917, and he got a job editing an in-house publication for Cadillac dealers called Cadillac Clearing House as a copywriter. He successfully went on to become an advertising director for the company.

Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer who worked for Interplay and currently works at Obsidian Entertainment.

He is an alumnus of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA. He went on to study at The College of William & Mary, graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.

Working initially as a freelancer in the two years after college, Avellone wrote campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy role-playing games. After entering the video game industry through the company Interplay in 1995, he briefly worked on the development of the 1997 title Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In 1997 he took over the development of Descent to Undermountain, which he later called a disappointment. Avellone contributed to the 1998 game Fallout 2 and continued to work on its franchise.

Interplay acquired the rights to produce a role-playing video game set in the Planescape campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons with the development led by Avellone. The 1999 game Planescape: Torment removed character death as a motive and also won acclaim for its narrative.