Branding Queen

photograph by heather mcgrath

She’s been climbing the ranks of the advertising world for 20 years, and last year Kristen Cavallo became president of Mullen’s flagship Boston office. The job came with an unusual provision: The spunky creative could continue to live in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and two children, and run the company remotely. The arrangement was the perfect fit for Cavallo, a travel buff. “My family and I have watched the sun set in Wadi Rum, ridden camels in Petra, walked among the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, gone gorilla-trekking in the Congo, and climbed the Great Wall of China,” she says. Jetting to Boston, L.A., and Chicago for work, then, suits her wanderlust well. It’s all in a day’s work for the ad exec, who has helmed campaigns for Volkswagen, Timberland, and Coca-Cola and won the coveted Jay Chiat Award not once, but twice. Maybe it’s something in that gelato?

Kristen Cavallo's Favorite Things

Her Tiffany Legacy Aquamarine Engagement Ring

“My husband gave it to me on our 10th wedding anniversary. Most everything about our relationship has defied convention. This was no ­exception.”

Travel

“I was a single mother for seven years, and my son and I promised that we’d always try to have more stamps in our passports than candles on our birthday cakes. So far we’ve fulfilled that promise.”

A copy of C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed

“I select my books by the first sentence, and this one—‘No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear’—had me immediately. One of the most brutally honest accounts of loss and love I’ve ever read.”

Her Allegra Hicks Rug

“The harmony and colors of the design make me feel at ease.

Art by Sylvain Tremblay

“His work reflects humanity in industrialized settings. The finished product is textured and layered, mixing crackled and varnished paints. My husband and I sometimes buy art as an ­anniversary gift to ourselves, to remember the different places we visit, and a Tremblay piece was our first.”

Talenti Gelato

“Chocolate peanut butter cup and sea salt caramel are my favorite flavors. Their packaging and website make me happy. It's a treat to myself every Sunday.”

Photographs by toan trinh (a grief observed); courtesy of TIFFANY & CO. (ring); the rug company (allegra hicks rug); berkuspic/flickr (plane); talenti gelato; sylvain tremblay (Bleu Urbain, 24 by 48 INCHES, sylvaintremblay.ca)