Icons, Rock Stars, & Innovators: Keni Thacker

What makes you an Innovator?

You’re not the problem, you’re the solution! You are traveling the roads not taken…being a pioneer of change…and fearlessly creating groundbreaking initiatives and solutions!

There are five types of thinkers: creative thinkers, analytical thinkers, intuitive thinkers, logical thinkers, and visionary thinkers. Keni is a pioneer of change and is committed to expanding diversity efforts, and the impact he has made on future leaders does not go unnoticed. A true exemplar of leadership, Keni an award-winning influencer and diversity advocate devoted to outreach programs and mentorship for the last ten years.

On February 8th, 2017, he launched the Young Commodores program at J. Walter Thompson (now Wunderman Thompson), a diversity initiative that provides college and high school advertising students with an opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom to real-life advertising and business.

In 2017, he was named as one of the 4A’s 100 People That Make Advertising Great. NV Magazine featured him as one of their Champions of Inclusion while also receiving a citation from the City of New York/Borough of Brooklyn for a long record of diversity, inclusion, and mentoring efforts in advertising in 2019. In December of 2020, he was honored with the Bill Sharp Award for the Future of Advertising for his tenure of diversity work in the advertising industry from the Marcus Graham Project.

He is also the founder and Chief Creative Officer of 100 Roses From Concrete, a network for people of color in advertising, marketing media, and public relations. Through the Roses, he recently created the G.R.O.W.T.H. Initiative that is a virtual agency program for multicultural college students who may have lost their internships due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

His creative diversity consultancy Keni Thacker LLC works with advertising agencies big and small. With clients such as VIA, McGarrah Jessee, Tinuiti, Forsman & Bodenfors, Bold Culture, Organic, SS+K, Geometry, DiMassimo / Goldstein and American Advertising Federation Buffalo.

Keni has appeared in Adweek, Ad Age, Digiday, The Drum and NV Magazine.

Websites: https://www.kenithacker.com/  https://www.100rosesfromconcrete.com/  

Follow Keni on MetaInstagram, and Twitter; find him  on LinkedIn!


The ACNY Foundation is proud to recognize outstanding industry professionals, during our 4th Annual Black History Month recognition series titled, “Icons, Rock Stars & Innovators”.

It is our way of shining the spotlight on exemplary talent, integral to the evolution and growth of the advertising industry. Each day during Black History Month we profile a selected “Icon, Rock Star & Innovator” across all our digital platforms. Though we cannot be together in person, the spirit of our history and the legacy of our excellence lives on in us. Follow the series on InstagramMetaTwitter, and LinkedIn!

P.S. Check out our other content from previous years

2020 – Honorees

2019 – Sizzle Reel

2019 – Online Exhibition

2019 – Icons, RockStars, & Innovators

2018 – Icons, RockStars, & Innovators