Dear Finnegan Family - My prayers are with you during this devastating time.  Sean will always be a digital marketing legend and bright light but his brightest legacy is his family, who he never missed a chance to talk about, while beaming. 

I will miss him. May his memory be eternal. 

Sean "Sparky Griswald" Finnegan made me a better person and brought the Finnegan family crest into every meeting on his sleeve. I am so grateful for the time we worked on projects and he showed me how to fit 20 meetings into a 24 hour trip in a single city. He loved to talk strategy, managed high volume meetings and always made time to give everyone who asked for 15 minutes in person that time when he was in town. Sean also made working with him very personal with many funny stories about his family as the kids were always on his mind and knew every line from Christmas Vacation and Irish songs.

There are so many stories about Sean, I chose to share one that is special to me and hope his Grandkids can read some day to learn about the kind of friend Sean was to someone he had just met.

I met Sean in 2010 when he hopped on a plane after one phone call to look at my startup in Fort Lauderdale and when I picked him up at the airport, we started laughing because we both looked related in some way as two pasty white guys from Chicago and Boston.

Sean jumped into the project and invited me to schedule meetings with media buyers in Chicago at what he described as a fireside chat which he was moderating. I landed in Chicago and met him at the venue, the White Sox baseball stadium. The event had over 100 media buyers in a stadium seating room and Sean made a brief intro and kicked me out on stage to demo my software product and present a deck outlining the value proposition. Sean sat on the side of the stage and watched the crowd for me and when it was over, Sean shared with me the folks in the crowd that had shown interest with a smile or taking some notes during my time on stage. He then introduced me to the 3 folks that wanted to learn more, invited them to dinner with us after the event and not only endorsed the platform but made sure they traded information with me and explained how I should drive the next steps. After the dinner he asked what hotel I was headed to and as I startup, I explained my flight was 5AM so I planned to stay out in the bars until they closed and then headed to the airport. Sean laughed at my plan and took me to a local bar with free peanuts on the countertop and introduced me to the bartender who hid my backpack behind the bar until the end of the night. There were more media folks at the hangout that knew Sean, which ended up in another booked meeting for me to follow up with. Finally, Sean asked if I liked Boston Red Sox, and I explained that I would not be here without the Red Sox, because my Grandfather Gerry O'Connor asked out my Grandmother Anne McGrath on their first date to a Red Sox game sitting behind the 3rd base line in May of 1946 and were married in the fall.

He smirked and said he had a friend to introduce me to, and less than 5 minutes later Steve Lyons, former Red Sox player and sports announcer came up to Sean gave him a hug and gave me a big ``what's up kid “You're with Finnegan you're good with me”. We had a great night and Sean stayed until I left for the airport just to make sure I was not out alone in his hometown, this was Sean's way. I had peanut shells on my bag for a month after that trip which I would send him picks and he would make fun of me every time.

In 2019, Sean came to North Quincy in South Boston the September before Covid lock to come to my wedding and crashed the reception with once again Mr. Steve Lyons, his Red Sox pal who had been so friendly to me 10 years ago in a bar in Chicago.

The universe provided one last in person meetup with Sean at the 2021 Boston marathon this past year to cheer on Melody at the finish line as I was in town for my cousin running her first Boston Marathon and we tracked them both about 20 minutes apart during the race.

Sean was watching the race from a suite on Commonwealth Ave at the finish line with a client of his, and invited me up with my wife to catch up. We heard about the kids, his new Metaverse and NFT's company as well as some of the college classes he was lecturing as he never stopped challenging to learn as a student while teaching all of us how to do good business and be kind.

Sending all my love to the Finnegan Clan in Chicago....May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

I met Sean at BBDO when I shifted from the Marketing Sciences group to the media group to become the first Interactive specialist (think compuserve and AOL days) in 1994.  There were a few young media planners and buyers who were interested in learning more about online media even though it was not yet glamorous and clients were barely building clunky websites at the time.  Sean was one of them - and he started hanging out in my office and seeking me out at Central Filing (the very popular BBDO bar) to pick my brain.  Within 6 months he leveraged his knowledge to land a full time digital media job and for the next decade had a meteoric rise hopping from agency to agency.  Any time we saw each other at industry events Sean would introduce me as the person who got him interested in digital media.  Sean's superpowers which served him so beautifully were 1) spotting the opportunity for new trends in the media world 2) surrounding himself and ingratiating himself to people with different expertise  3) bringing people within his orbit together to do amazing things. 

As you can tell, Sean was an icon in the digital media industry and was seemingly at every major industry conference and event.  He was also one of the most prolific instagram posters in my feed.  I met Mel back in the BBDO days, and every time I saw Sean I remarked (and he agreed) that she needs to be sainted. I have never had the opportunity to meet any of the Finnegan 'brood'..   However, I feel as if I know all seven of you based on our conversations where your dad would kvell about your accomplishments,  as well the many posts of your sports games, graduation, family gatherings and travels.  May Sean's memory be for a blessing.

It's incredibly hard to believe Sean is no longer with us...but he is with us. If you were to open the dictionary to the term "Happy go Lucky" you would find a picture of Sean. We met in 1996 when I was working on a new business pitch for Sun Microsystems. Sean was one of two people I knew who knew digital media. He worked for Greg Smith at the time at Saatchi & Saatchi. He was "loaned" to me at Lowe & Partners to do the digital media plan for the pitch. It was a small, yet important piece of the puzzle. Years later, I was tasked with starting the first digital division of JWT. I created digital@jwt and desperately needed a Media Director. Sean fit the bill and we were off the races. We won Unilever, Lipton, Merrill Lynch, DeBeers, and a host of others.

Sean was a bon vivant in the truest sense. There wasn't a party or event, Sean didn't want to attend. He managed to be everywhere, and I always marveled at how he did it. This was a guy that was in two...probably three places at once. From Washington to Vegas to Cannes, he was there. Omnipresent.

In 1999, Sean and I received invitations to a party for a company called Pixelon. We received FedEx envelopes. Enclosed was another envelope and inside that was a flat invitation that popped into a three-dimensional cube when you took it out. We laughed and marveled at this ingenious invitation. And then we read it..."You and a guest are invited first-class to Las Vegas. Three nights in the Mirage hotel. Please provide your choice of entertainment.”

Now on each side of the cube was an explanation of the entertainment. Here it is; The Dixie Chicks, Tony Bennett, Kiss, or the reunion of The Who. WHAT?!?! This was nuts.

I could provide a lot more detail, but suffice it to say, Sean went, and I did not. On the Friday of the event, my phone rang, and it was Sean calling me from the poolside. “Hey, Kevin…I’m here with my good friend Tony Bennett. What would you like him to play?” I said, “come on…you’re kidding me?” Sean said, “No really…what do you want him to play?” I said, “I left my heart in San Francisco.” Sean said in a relatively normal voice; “Tony…Kevin wants you to play I left my heart in San Francisco.” And then I hear Tony Bennett say; (put on your Tony Bennett voice) “Sure Sean…here it goes…(Strike up the band…” We hung up and I certainly regret not sitting on that float in the pool with Sean to hear Tony Bennett take requests.

That is certainly how I will remember the man. Happy go lucky. He made the most of his time on this earth. He enjoyed the time. He enjoyed being the social butterfly. He's a character that passed in and out of my life and left some great memories. Rest in peace Sean and make sure to request some great songs wherever you’re off to next.