Code & Theory Team Members

As President of Code and Theory, Mike Treff oversees the agency’s output and client roster, across 6 offices and 500 employees. Residing in the company's New York office, Treff has been with the company since 2011, holding positions of Director of Creative Strategy and Managing Partner prior to his current role. Over that span, the agency has grown significantly in both size, as well as the scale of its work. During his tenure, he as establishing practices within Code and Theory focused on Data, Analytics and Research (DAR), Creative Technology, Branding and Identity, Experiential Marketing, Industrial Design, and Business Consulting. Over that span, the company has garnered dozens of awards including being named to Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies. With a client roster that represents diverse categories ranging from finance to sports to publishing to cpg and more, Code and Theory sits comfortably at the intersection of creativity and technology, with strategy and consumer insight at the center of the companies work. Prior to joining Code and Theory, Treff was the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Soundscreen Design, a boutique product design company within Warner Music Group. Additionally, he spent eight years working in various creative and strategic account roles at traditional, digital, and integrated advertising agencies including JWT, Agency.com, and TBWA Chiat / Day, where he worked with brands like Snickers, Skittles, Rolex, Choice Hotels, and Maidenform.

Marketing and sales executive. Publisher, startup, and agency background with a variety of client experience ranging from financial services to hospitality to FMCG. Entrepreneurial at heart and a rabid consumer of media. Angel investor.

Craig Elimeliah is a highly decorated creative leader, renowned for his exceptional ability to unlock growth through innovation. With nearly two decades of experience, Craig leads multitalented teams with a vision to tackle complex challenges head-on, through the art of culture, design and creativity.

As Chief Creative Officer at Code & Theory, Craig brings an unrivaled passion for culture, technology, science, and data, and how they merge with creativity, craftsmanship, and storytelling. He seamlessly blends new and unconventional approaches to connect brands with customers, resulting in captivating experiences that redefine categories, embed culture, and disrupt the status quo.

A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Craig has been recognized at prestigious award shows such as Cannes, D&AD, ADC, LIA, Clios, The One Show, and Webbys, further cementing his reputation as an authority in his field.

With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Craig is an enthusiastic champion of the transformative power of creativity to drive business results. In his free time, he indulges his passions for art, design, technology, and food, and finds joy in cooking, running, traveling, and learning.

Craig calls the banks of the Hudson River in Nyack, NY home, where he lives with his beloved family.

His impressive client roster spans across multiple industries and includes: TMobile, Athena Health, Amazon, Google, Cognizant, New Balance, BP, Motorola, Luminary, Dell, Office Depot, United Nations, Legoland, Related Properties, Pfizer, PHRMA, Humana, Time Warner Cable, J&J, NBCUniversal, Clorox, Mattel, Disney Channel, Gilead, Nestle, Novartis, HP, Bayer, SAP, New York State Development Corp, Converse, Herman Miller, Sony Music, Penguin Publishing, Newell Rubbermaid, Daffy's, Hershey's, Microsoft, Intel, Fila, AXE, Perdue, HP, Samsung, John Varvatos, Sean John, MINI. 

Dan Gardner is Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director at Code and Theory. With more than a decade of experience designing cross-platform products and brand experiences for clients in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, he and Co-Founder Brandon Ralph have led Code and Theory to become one of the largest independent creative agencies in the United States. Since founding the company with Ralph in 2001, it has grown to ~350 employees, with offices in New York City, San Francisco, London, Manila, and Atlanta. From pioneering the modern digital landscape with fifty-eight major media launches for publishers such as Bloomberg, Vogue, and the Los Angeles Times, to defining a new standard for how brands like Maybelline New York and Burger King communicate their stories, to reimagining the digital space between government and citizenry through sites like NY.gov, Gardner and Ralph have radically redrawn the map of challenges a creative agency can confront in today’s digital world. His efforts in growing Code and Theory have been widely recognized. Code and Theory was named one of the “World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Design” by Fast Company in 2015, an “Agency to Watch” and “Hot Digital Indie” by Advertising Agency in 2014, one of the “Hottest Agencies for Publisher Redesigns” by Digiday, a “Top 50 Design Agency” by .net magazine, and one of the “10 Best Agencies in NYC” by Awwwards.com. Gardner received a BFA from the University of Buffalo in 2001.ᐧ

My name is Stacy, I’ve always had a thing for ?,
Because I believe the best kind of progress is co-created and the best ideas are cross-pollinated.
(They’re also ? and ?, like me.)
But what I actually do for a living is help dynamic brands define strategy, design growth, and build for impact.

My mission is to make 1️⃣ + 1️⃣ = 3️⃣:
To bring people together, ask better questions, make good change, and enjoy the process.
I can't help that I'm a curious solver who loves to synthesize, and I'm drawn to create for problems where there’s no recipe.

My unique value is in fusing opposites:
➡️ story AND science
➡️ pitching AND doing
➡️ creativity AND data
➡️ imagination AND automation
Perhaps this is rooted in my multicultural identity and lifetime of refusal to just “select one box.”