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| B-SCHOOL OF ROCK: Corbett Guest learned his CEO sensibilities in the music biz. photography by Jeremy Sharp |
With his vintage t-shirt and mop-top haircut, Corbett Guest looks more like a rock star than a CEO, which is no fluke. The UTA dropout (he later went back to get his degree) was in ’90s local favorite indie band Slowpoke. But after three albums, Slowpoke disbanded and Guest got to work.
Guest is now CEO of Imaginuity Interactive, a creative Web development firm. The Dallas company builds and designs corporate and branded Web sites for the likes of the Nasher Sculpture Center, Cadbury Schweppes, Cadbury Adams, The Staubach Company, and Hines Interests, “translating brands in the online space,” explains Guest, 36.
“I tend to have a bad habit of becoming the leader wherever I end up,” he says. And quickly, too. After just under three months of contract work for Imaginuity in 2001 and 2002, the company’s founder, McKinley Hailey, told Guest he was ill with cancer and that he wanted Guest to run the company for him. As it turns out, Guest’s Slowpoke days weren’t for naught. He got his b-school training on the road. “When you’ve got eight guys touring across the country, you’ve got to book hotels and get food and manage your contract negotiations,” he says.
In 2002, Hailey passed away, and Guest continued to head the company until he and partners Gary Hooker and Tim Langford bought the company the following year. “Just me, my two partners, and the skin of our teeth,” he says now, noting that there are no outside investors. (Todd Wagner, who still sits on Imaginuity’s advisory board, and Don Williams were original backers.) Since then, the 20-person company in Deep Ellum (natch) has taken off, beating out major agencies for major contracts while sticking true to the community-centered underpinning Hailey founded it on. (Imaginuity does a significant amount of discounted or pro bono work for arts and non-profit organizations in town, including most recently, the Get a Move On citywide fitness initiative program.)
Now, as more and more executives realize the importance of integrated brand campaigns, Guest’s biggest challenge is transitioning his primarily Web-based company into a more traditional, all-around creative marketing agency, while still growing its revenue. Guest may not look like a typical CEO, but with a creative spirit and a mind for business, he’s exactly the right guy for the job.
