INNOVATE & ADVOCATE
In 1972, Aubrey Balkind founded Gips + Balkind in New York City. The highly successful advertising firm partnered with Steven Frankfurt and in 1988 were renamed Frankfurt Balkind. The entertainment industry pioneers were one of the world’s most influential, strategic advertising firms leading the field with a fresh design and a uniquely honest approach to marketing and client relations.
In 2003, Aubrey sold Frankfurt Balkind to global InterPublic and he switched careers to one based on a nature-based self-healing lifestyle.
In 2016, Aubrey founded and built Sane Living in Ojai, California to help people live a sane, healthy lifestyle founded on organic, live, fermented, biotic, whole foods while moving, detoxing and removing stress on our bodies and our surroundings.
Aubrey Balkind was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 31, 1944. At age 4, he contracted Typhoid through contaminated food and water. During the next three years he struggled to survive. However, the following three years he was able to follow a cleaner diet, clear his left reasoning brain, calm his right creative brain and strengthen his body. As he aged his body and mind became fully rejuvenated and this experience gave him perspective.
In 1963, Aubrey graduated in economics from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and flew for the first time to Europe. The next morning he was stunned to find out that John F. Kennedy, the US President, had been shot dead in Dallas. When Aubrey arrived in Paris he stayed with his Uncle Gabriel Balkind and cousin Jonathan. They treating him to decadent dinners, befriended the world’s top ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev, attended a concert with Trini Lopez and danced all night at a Parisian nightclub with Dionne Warwick. Only to be topped the next night by attending a Beatles concert. His journey took him through endless visits to a dozen major museums with his highly educated high school friend Tony who read a book a day out loud making the trip otherworldly.
After Paris, Aubrey’s cousin Jonathan Balkind invited him to spend a week with him and his South African stepfather- A man named Sydney Brenner, who ran the Cambridge University Molecular Biology Lab where Watson and Crick invented the first visualization of the DNA helix for which they received the Nobel Prize. Having long dinners in their home with humorous Sydney Brenner and cousin Jonathan, the stacks of books were repeatedly cracked open to prove a point or to read a quote. It was spectacular.
It was Sydney who planted the seeds for Aubrey’s larger understanding of the world and the power that humans, nature and DNA played in the universe. Sydney Brenner went on to receive the 2002 Nobel Prize and educated most other microbiologists who won medical science Nobels.
After returning to South Africa in 1966, Aubrey met New York senator Robert F. Kennedy at an anti-apartheid lecture in Johannesburg. Aubrey and a group of white liberals were clearly moved and the apartheid South African Government was shaken and hostile. Soon thereafter, Aubrey decided to plan his journey to leave South Africa permanently and go to New York City with 4 other South Africans to study for an MBA at prestigious Columbia University.
Aubrey arrived in New York in early 1968. Coincidently and shockingly R.F.K. was murdered on June 5, 1968 after winning the California Democratic primary race for President. A month later Aubrey moved into his New York Columbia University dorm that was on the edge of black Harlem, reminiscent of apartheid.
Aubrey received his Master of Business Administration MBA at Columbia University with honors in 1969, and was hired as a consultant at Arthur Young. He was soon assigned to consult with John Reed at Citibank, the inventor of the world’s first ATM. In 1971, Aubrey entered NYU to study for a PhD in Urban Planning and Design.
In 1972, Aubrey founded design and advertising firm Gips + Balkind. Phil Gips designed major movie campaigns of the era including Rosemary’s Baby, Alien and countless others. They worked with marketing giant Steve Frankfurt- former President of the global advertising agency Young & Rubicam and the inspiration for the TV Show Mad Men that highlighted 1960’s advertising culture. Steve Frankfurt later joined Gips + Balkind and in 1988 the company changed its name to Frankfurt Balkind. Steve was the chairman of the entertainment division and Aubrey became CEO. Peter Bemis was named creative director of the LA movie division and Philip Durbrow, past president of Landor, joined Frankfurt Balkind leading its brand identity group.
In 1985, Aubrey was accepted as one of the first members of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and has attended their annual conferences almost every year for more than 30 years consulting some of the TED Prize winners on their development programs. Today TED has become one of the most advanced educational institutions in the world.
FRANKFURT BALKIND Client Industries: *launched campaign
Technology: *Adobe, *Acrobat, Sony, Informix, Oracle
Entertainment: *CNN, *ESPN, *HBO, *MTV, *Time Warner, *Comcast, NETFLIX
Finance: *Goldman Sachs, *Salomon Brothers, Chase Bank
Education: *Fordham University- “Life is Not a True or False Question”
Museums: *Getty, Guggenheim
Aubrey Balkind’s Time Warner Merger and 1989 Annual Report is featured in New York City’s MOMA collection and became the design and style guide for Wired Magazine.
In 2002 Aubrey sold Frankfurt Balkind to the global advertising agency InterPublic.
BOARD OF DIRECTOR SEATS:
Strategic Dialog Peace Center: Ehud Barak, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, FW De Klerk
Tapergy: International alternative bio-fuels, forest sciences, agro-forestry
ProjectPeaceOnEarth.org
Strat B: Think Tank Alternative
Be Sane: Think Tank Alternative
S A N E L I V I N G C E N T E R
Lifestyle Health
Aubrey and partner Carol began dining at Hip Vegan Cafe in 2014 and fell in love with the food and owner’s practices. In 2016 Aubrey constructed the Sane Living Center building that now houses the #1 restaurant in central downtown Ojai. He wanted to ensure their success and to also make sure clean and healthy food will always be available to the community and visitors. “Food Is Delicious Medicine”
Along with the restaurant, the building houses an auditorium for Live Events, Workshops, Entertainment and Visual Art.
EVO 3 – Public Art
Sane Living Center front lawn showcases the 1,600cu ft sculpture “EVO 3.” Aubrey designed and named the intricate artwork and with the help of local sculpture artist, Ray Cerino, they built the large stainless steel public art sculpture as a tribute to human’s potential symbiotic relationship with nature and algorithms.
5 Daily Heath Pillars
1. Eat – real, whole, food, mostly raw, pre-and-probiotic, fermented, liquid, digest
2. Move – flex, balance, strength
3. Detox – food, addictions, self, home, environment
4. De-stress – meditate, breathe, sleep, self-heal, conscious of side effects
5. Connections – community in sync with all 5 pillars
“How are Sapiens going to evolve with Nature and A. I. ?” – Yuval Noah Harari
3 Baselines of Evolution
For evolution of ours species and the natural world, each baseline must be in symbiosis with each other. Algorithms and A.I. are profoundly shaping our rate of change. As modern sapiens we are learning to use technology and nature’s regenerative wisdom to discover new systems and practices. Living in symbiosis with the natural world and the speed of algorithms while creating zero waste.
1. N A T U R E (Biology – B I O) = 5 billion years old
2. S A P I E N S (Ego – E G O) = 5 million years old
3. A. I. (Algorithm – A L G O) = 50 years old
– T H R E A T S into T R E A T S –
Lifestyle is the first and most important aspect that Aubrey and his team look at when body and soul are out of balance, such as dealing with addiction, mental afflictions, physical disorders and ailments. All of which can be managed by living in symbiosis with our surroundings.
Enjoying food as a delicious medicine you grow in your own garden and shifting focus from wealth and progress to health and wellness- prioritizing your body over business.
SANE LIVING MISSION:
- Help all who come achieve successful cross functioning across all 3 different Evolutionary systems: B I O + E G O + A L G O
- Reduce USA health costs by more than 50% & increase health lifespans by 20%
- Stabilize and improve soil, water, atmosphere and community.
Through years of innovations in an incredibly multifaceted career and cultivating potent influential relationships, Aubrey Balkind is on a mission to change the way we use medicine, live in unison with our community and interact with our planet as a whole.