Steven Michaelson, Founder & Chairman, Calcium
Steven Michaelson was made to run an agency. Originally from Newark, NJ, then moving to the burbs, Steven found refuge in art since he struggled to read due to undiagnosed dyslexia. He always knew his path in life would involve the arts, but after getting a job doing market renderings for art directors at ad agencies, he discovered something. For him, going home at night to paint or draw was now too solitary for him, but agency work elicited a much deeper joy—it was just more fun to create something as a team.
Michaelson is like no other industry leader—he is open, warm, colorful, buoyant, and above all else, honest. Those qualities and his passion for advertising would help him found and lead not one but two award-winning healthcare agencies in Wishbone (1998) and Calcium (2012), and become in the eyes of Greg Lewis, Managing Partner, President of Calcium, “an advertising hero…a legend.”
“His name will always be associated with entrepreneurial, independent ad agencies in a crazy time when the networks just seem to be taking over,” Lewis says. “But he managed to build and make thrive two really important agencies by putting his staff and clients at the center of every decision and by making sure everything always looked perfect to the end user.”
A lot of that can be attributed to growing up with dyslexia, which Michaelson says left a chip on his shoulder.
“I certainly suffered from imposter syndrome throughout my career because of my learning disability,” Michaelson explains. “However, it made me stronger. It motivated me to constantly prove everybody wrong who thought less of me. I always wanted to be the best at what I did whether it was a painter, an art director, conceptual thinker, or a businessman.”
Thinking Visually
Michaelson has been proving he is no imposter since his career in advertising began in consumer goods where he helped develop award-winning work for Ford, Lanvin, Absolute, Penthouse, Sasson jeans, and more. In 1990, he took an interview at KPR to join the world of pharma marketing. While he had no knowledge about the industry at the time, he saw an opportunity to make a big difference. He admits he may have been a little naïve, considering he lacked an understanding of the industry’ regulatory boundaries, but it ultimately didn’t stop him from bringing his creative flare to pharma.
While at FCB he helped create the Mevacor wolf campaign, which used the arresting image of a wolf peering behind a tree with one eye with the headline, “don’t be fooled by the silence of arthrosclerosis.” At Wishbone, they created the iconic Zomig bunny to represent how for migraine treatment “faster just got faster” as well as the Sonata boxer campaign for a sleep aide that wouldn’t knock you out all night like Ambien. More recently at Calcium, they developed a disease awareness campaign along with Chiesi Rare Diseases for Fabry disease in which an anchor on the shore is turning into birds flying away toward the sunrise.
“Steven is a designer at heart, and a skilled one at that,” says Steve Hamburg, Managing Partner, Chief Strategy Officer at Calcium. “He processes the world visually and his perceptions, instincts, and thinking display the boldness and liveliness of one of his designs.”
That way of thinking isn’t reserved only for his creative work. When he formed Wishbone, he had to build the infrastructure from the ground up. Having never put together an accounting system, he turned to his ability to think visually. He created a color-coded system and designed the forms so that the estimate talked to a time sheet, which talked to an invoice, which talked to the balance sheet, so that everything worked together. When he eventually hired a Chief Financial Officer, Ralph DeVito, Michaelson was afraid he would not be a fan of the system. But DeVito didn’t change a thing, he called it “perfect,” and they worked together to digitize the process.
Building a People-First Culture
Most important to Michaelson when building both Wishbone and Calcium was putting his employees first—and both agencies have been lauded for their strong culture. At Calcium, that culture revolves around core values based on Michaelson’s own mantra of “commitment, integrity, and respect.”
“People in advertising don’t pick this career to get rich. It’s because we love what we do,” Michaelson says. “So, what’s going to motivate people? I believe it’s how we can help make their career dreams come true. It’s part of why we say Calcium is all about nourishment. Because if we help nourish someone’s career then you’re nourishing them as well.”
Calcium provides industry-leading benefits, training, mentorship programs, DEI initiatives, and cultural enrichment. Even during the pandemic, Michaelson helped ensure that the Calcium team felt maximally supported, motivated, and enriched.
“He just cares more deeply than most people and wants to make sure people are successful,” says Melissa Morrow, Partner, Chief People Officer, Calcium. “I talk to candidates all day long and when they ask me what matters to us, it’s easy to say ‘commitment, integrity, respect’ is what we live by every day. It’s very clear to me who Calcium is and what we’re about. And I’ve worked at many different agencies—big and small—and I’m not sure I ever had a true sense of who that agency was and what they represented.”
A Different Kind of Agency Leader
Michaelson’s other goal with his agencies was to deliver the big agency experience without the big agency bureaucracy. In other words, ensuring clients are always working with senior leaders—oftentimes even him.
“Clients can get into this death spiral transactional relationship with their agency that doesn’t derive a lot of meaning, but Steven has injected energy into this portion of the industry by making clients feel they have a thought partner in the trenches with them,” says Drew Otoo, President, Global Vaccines, Merck Human Health. “Most leaders of an agency come in, shake your hand, do the pitch, and then you never see them again. Whereas Steven was always very much involved with a vested interest in making sure that a high level of engagement and service was being provided by him and his team.”
Mark Passy, Sr. Director, Sourcing Excellence, Bristol Myers Squibb, agrees that Michaelson’s passion for both his agency and clients is undeniable.
“When I told Steven we were going to have an agency day with presentation booths, he asked me if he could bring a gigantic cow to represent Calcium,” Passy says. “I was not sure what to expect, but he arranged to transport Calcium’s gigantic agency cow mascot to greet everyone at the entrance of the event. Not only did this represent the spirit of his agency, but it was the hit of the event with everyone taking pictures with it.”
Even his former competitors can’t help but to respect him.
“What I love about Steven is his openness and willingness to share industry insights,” says Charlene Prounis, Former CEO, Flashpoint Medica. “This tells me that he is assured and confident, not worried that someone is going to encroach on his space.”
An Industry Good Guy
That is not to say his career has been without its missteps. Michaelson admits he has had quite a few, with his biggest regret being when he sold Wishbone to Rosetta in 2010. As marketing was growing more digital, the deal to sell to a digital agency made sense, but the aftermath was not ideal.
“It was my biggest regret because we did not leave our people in good hands and I’m really sorry for that,” Michaelson says. “I would make sure that would never happen again.”
A couple of years later he brought together much of Wishbone’s leadership to form Calcium. Eventually, the agency started working with Star Group as their digital agency and the companies would later decide to merge Star Group’s healthcare division Star Life Sciences, Vox Medica, and Calcium, and go to market as Calcium. Michaelson says it was a “great strategy, but awful execution.” So as not to repeat his previous mistake of leaving his people in a poor situation, he and Judy Capano, his business partner and wife, bought the agency back in its entirety in 2015.
In 2021, they ushered in a partnership with NexPhase Capital, LP, a private equity firm to provide more capital to help the agency grow. In 2021, Calcium welcomed three new clients and saw a 30% increase in revenue. This year, the company launched Vitamin MD, a new division dedicated to providing leading-edge medical education solutions. And they are in the process of putting together new consulting and PR divisions, while also exploring acquisition opportunities to further grow the agency.
Outside of agency work, Michaelson and Calcium offer ongoing support to the Great American Milk Drive, an organization dedicated to providing vital nutritional support for Americans in need. Michaelson also serves on the board of Haven Kids Rock (a music program supporting at-risk children in the New York City child welfare and foster care systems) and is a major donor and fundraiser for the USTA Foundation, whose mission is to bring tennis and education together to open opportunities for under-resourced youth.
“The essence of Steven is he really is one of the industry’s good guys,” Capano, Calcium’s CEO, says. “He loves this business. He loves this process. He loves building teams and he loves building companies. I don’t think you can distinguish between his qualities as a leader and his qualities as a human being. There is always honesty and transparency, maybe too much. He is who he is all the time. That genuineness is attractive to people. They know exactly what he stands for—his word is his bond.”
Even with a lifetime of achievements, Michaelson says he plans to continue to grow Calcium—and the industry—to better serve clients. And we have no reason to doubt him.
