Chad Costas's Page

Chad began his working career at age 8 as a bagboy at his family’s supermarket. Ever the fast learner, he quickly moved up the ranks to checkout clerk, stocker, loading dock receiver, and produce clerk – all before he started high school.

To complement his on-the-job sales and customer relations experience, Chad’s parents sent him off to an illustrious boarding school in bucolic Connecticut, where he promptly became an underachiever. He redeemed himself in college by attending classes and hitting the books, but then decided to disrupt the conventional wisdom of his parents (who assumed he would get a “suit job”), and moved to New York City, where he sold his soul to rock and roll – literally – landing a marketing gig at a well-known record label. Four years of hanging around rock stars and groupies finally took its toll and burnt him out on the music scene.

Hungry for knowledge, Chad packed his bags and moved back to Dallas to attend business school and earn his MBA. It was at this point that Chad decided to listen to his inner voice and accept his true calling – advertising account executive. (Actually, his true calling was “lazy roustabout,” but he had a wife and a kid on the way, and it didn’t pay nearly as well.)

Over the course of his short but stellar rise up the agency corporate ladder, Chad has led teams though national and local advertising campaigns, rebranding efforts, national and regional promotion events and even new products launches.

But in a fit of (sober) inspiration, Chad hooked up with three people who would help change the course of his life. Together, they went on to form Black Lab Creative, and created a paradigm shift within the advertising industry by establishing an agency that cares about its clients, listens to them, partners with them, and works hard to achieve their objectives. Proof that all it takes is hard work, determination and a bowtie.