William Francis Oechsler, M.A.

Creative Strategies
Grand Rapids, MI

Bill Oechsler is president and founder of XLER | Marketing & Brand Consultancy. He also currently serves as the interim president for Ethnographic Media.

Before starting his own consultancy, Oechsler was executive vice president of marketing at Zondervan, a HarperCollins company owned by NewsCorp that is an international leader in Christian communications.

Previously, Oechsler served as president and chief strategic officer of Hanon McKendry/The Brand Consultants. In that role, he led many of the strategic initiatives for corporate clients such as Owens Corning, Hush Puppies and Rubbermaid as well as nonprofits including World Vision, Bethany Christian Services, and Knights of Columbus.

Oechsler began his marketing career at Leo Burnett USA, one of nation’s foremost advertising agencies, where he managed market research and strategic planning initiatives for clients including McDonald's, Sony, Philip Morris (Marlboro), Reebok, P&G and Walt Disney World.

His national recognition for marketing communications includes two Effies, an Obie, Gabriel, Silver Anvil, New York Festival World Medal, two Pollies, two Print Magazine Awards, a Web Award, Webby Worthy Award, Marketing Sherpa's Silver Mouse, four Audies (including Audiobook of the Year), and more than a dozen Telly Awards.  

Oechsler graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in speech (organizational communications sequence) and an MA in journalism (public relations major, statistics minor, with health communications/social marketing emphasis).