Carey Chesney is an Ann Arbor native who serves as a Realtor® and owner of Chesney Team Realtors - Keller Williams. Carey brings a wealth of real estate sales and marketing experience to his buyers and sellers as they navigate highly competitive markets. He and his wife Ilze work together as Realtors® who primarily serve southeastern Michigan, but also offer a referral service that leverages a network of realtors spanning across the U.S.
Carey also works as a freelance creative and technical writer who has completed a broad array of high quality long and short form writing assignments across almost every industry and nearly every audience. His areas of expertise include news articles (print and online), blog content, website copy, newsletters, email marketing campaigns, internal employee communications, executive communications, ad copy, script writing, and more. Notable past/present clients include:
- The University of Michigan
- Jaguar/Land Rover
- Sony Entertainment
- Harvard University
- Henry Ford Health System
- Quicken Loans
- Flagstar Bank
- Hungry Howies
Carey also previously served as Managing Director at the Center for Socially Engaged Design at the University of Michigan. At one of the world’s leading research and educational institutions, The Center for Socially Engaged Design (C-SED) empowers students and design practitioners with perspectives and skills needed to design effective interventions that are impactful for society. They believe this requires designers to take into account the fullest social, cultural, economic, and environmental contexts of their design process and push designers to recognize and analyze how their own cultural contexts shape their approach.
Prior to managing C-SED, Carey served as Director of Marketing Services Development at Icon Interative, a full-service creative and digital agency headquartered in Ann Arbor with offices in New York, Boston and overseas. Carey worked with current and prospective ICON clients on overall brand strategy, marketing communications strategy, creative approach, content development, new business development and more.
Before joining ICON, Carey served as the Vice President of Marketing and Community Relations at the University of Michigan Credit Union where he oversaw all integrated marketing communications (branding, public relations, media relations, etc.) as well as all community outreach activities (sponsorships, community volunteer work, etc.).
Before joining UMCU, he served as Director of Marketing for the Office of University Development at the University of Michigan, where he was responsible for the creation and implementation of the marketing and branding efforts for the university’s Victors for Michigan campaign. This $4 billion fundraising initiative, the largest ever for an institution of public higher education when it launched, represented an exciting and unique marketing challenge, as it involved working in collaboration with all 38 schools, colleges and units throughout the university to create a clear and consistent campaign brand. In this role, Carey led the establishment of the campaign name (Victors for Michigan), a comprehensive style guide, and a slew of campaign marketing projects including campaign videos, the university’s case for support, the branding of large scale kickoff events, direct mail pieces, a website redesign and more.
Prior to joining the Office of University Development, Carey directed the integrated marketing communications and patient experience for the Destination Programs at the University of Michigan Health System. Focusing primarily on new digital advertising approaches and customer service improvement techniques, he worked to bring patients from all over the world into these highly specialized multidisciplinary clinics and tirelessly stressed the importance of keeping the brand promise made to both current and potential customers.
Before he joined the University of Michigan in 2011, Carey was a member of the executive leadership team that opened Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, a $300 million, 350-bed hospital in West Bloomfield, Michigan. As the hospital’s Director of PR and Marketing, Carey led an effort to not only create a new hospital campaign, but to market the facility as a health and wellness destination. He also worked extensively on the hospitality aspects of the hospital’s care delivery, reporting to and learning from the hospital’s CEO, a former VP of Food and Beverage for the Ritz Carlton hotel company.
Carey has won numerous industry awards for his marketing expertise, including an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Michigan Chapter in 2010. He has also served on numerous community boards and organizations, including serving as President of Leadership Oakland XX and on the Board of Trustees of the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. As a presenter at numerous national conferences, Carey is committed to sharing insights gained from his vast experiences across the spectrum of integrated marketing communications. Throughout his career, he has shown a passion for innovative approaches, measured results and forging a strong connection between institutions and their brands.
Carey was born in and grew up in Ann Arbor, graduating from Burns Park Elementary, Tappan Middle School and Community High School. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in English in 2002 and earned his Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Eastern Michigan University School of Business in 2014 (honors society). He currently lives with his wife and 3 children in Ann Arbor.
