THE PROBLEM
AI eliminated the training ground.
decline in entry-level advertising roles since 2022
of senior hires originate from personal networks
projected year mid-level talent shortage peaks
Advertising, finance, consulting, and media all ran on the same model for decades: hire junior people for execution work, let them accumulate judgment through repetition, promote the ones who developed into operators.
AI will soon handle the execution and eliminate the junior training ground. Companies still need mid-level operators with real judgment, but the pipeline that produced them is collapsing.
The people who close that gap will be the ones with access to the right networks, mentors, training, and sponsor. That access has always been informal, invisible, and inequitable.
Lineage Group makes it formal.
THE SOLUTION
Every House is backed by an industry leader who sponsors, trains, and personally vouches for a selective cohort of early-career talent. Their reputation becomes your credential, their network becomes your access, and when it matters, they are the ones making the call.
Belonging to a House is not a course.
It is a credential and backing that guarantees the applicant is ready to skip the entry-level role.
01 / THE LEADER
The name on the door
A senior industry operator puts their professional reputation behind every member they certify. When they endorse you, hiring managers trust it because their credibility is on the line, not an institution’s.
02 / THE CURRICULUM
What they actually know
Every House is anchored by a proprietary curriculum built from the leader’s real career, their frameworks, decisions, and hard-won judgment. A true masterclass of content no business school can replicate, because it was never written down until now.
03 / THE SANDBOX
Hands-on, industry-specific training
Members train inside sandbox environments built around the real tools, case studies, and workflows of their industry. Real platforms. Real scenarios. The on-the-job skills that used to take years of junior-level repetition, compressed into weeks of deliberate practice.
04 / THE ROOM
The introductions that move careers
Members attend dinners, events, and sessions with the House leader directly. The leader is not a narrator. They are a participant who brings members into rooms they could not access alone.
“When Eileen Kiernan certifies someone, a hiring manager at any major holdco knows exactly what that means.”
THE SANDBOX
Master the job before you land it.
Every House includes a sandbox training environment built around the operational mechanics of the industry. These are not theoretical exercises rather members work through real scenarios using the actual tools, platforms, and processes that define success in their field, past and present. Sandbox training are created in partnership with tool vendors across each industry.
Industry-Specific Tools
Train on the real platforms and software used across the industry, from legacy systems that shaped the field to the cutting-edge tools redefining it today.
Real Case Studies
Work through actual campaigns, deals, and operational decisions drawn from industry history. Understand what worked, what failed, and why the judgment calls mattered.
Compressed Experience
The on-the-job learning that once took three to five years of junior-level repetition, distilled into weeks of structured, hands-on practice with real-world feedback loops.
Process & Workflow Mastery
Learn the workflows, reporting structures, and operational rhythms that define how work actually moves inside leading organizations, not how textbooks describe it.
Historical Context
Understand the innovations, pivotal moments, and key players that shaped your industry. Know what tools people once used, what changed, and who drove it forward.
Practical Decision-Making
Face the same budget, strategy, and client scenarios that mid-level operators navigate daily. Make the calls. See the consequences. Build the judgment.
THE OPERATOR MASTERCLASS
Their career is part of your playbook.
Every House leader works alongside Lineage Group to create an exclusive masterclass series, built through in-depth interviews that draw out the judgment, frameworks, and instincts they have developed across their entire career.
This is not a generic lecture series. It is a proprietary body of knowledge assembled from how that leader actually thinks, decides, and operates. The content is available only to members of their House. It does not exist anywhere else.
When you join a House, you get the playbook that no business school has, because it was never written down until now.
Built Through Interviews
Lineage Group produces every masterclass through structured interviews with the House leader. They share the decisions, the pivots, the hard-won lessons. We turn it into curriculum.
Exclusive to the House
Each masterclass series is locked to the cohort. This is not public content. Members of the Kiernan House see Kiernan's masterclass. Members of the Wren House see Wren's. The exclusivity is the point.
The Competitive Edge
Members walk into interviews and client meetings with a depth of operational understanding that peers without House access simply do not have. That asymmetry is the Lineage edge.
THE HOUSES
Every House carries a name the market already knows.
Lineage Group launches with a founding cohort of Houses in advertising and media. Each is led by a senior executive whose career spans the major players in their industry.
The Wren House
Chairman & CEO · Omnicom Group
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Kassan House
Founder, MediaLink · CEO, 3C Ventures
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Galloway House
Professor of Marketing · NYU Stern · Founder, L2 (acq. Gartner)
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Kelley House
Chief Client & Business Officer · Omnicom
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Sadoun House
Chairman & CEO · Publicis Groupe
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Kiernan House
Global CEO · IPG Mediabrands
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Vaynerchuk House
Chairman · VaynerX
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Simm House
Co-President & COO · Omnicom Group
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
The Ruhanen House
CEO · Omnicom Advertising Group
ADVERTISING & MEDIA
Current Houses listed are for illustrative purposes only. These are not true Houses of Lineage Group at this time.
Lineage Group is expanding into finance, consulting, technology, and law. Senior operators interested in founding a House should contact us directly.
THE MODEL
Placement Fees for Top Rising Talent.
Lineage Group earns three ways, all from the hiring side. Members carry zero tuition, zero placement fees, and zero post-program obligation. The companies that benefit from a House placement fund it.
Placement Fees
20%
of the placed member’s gross annual salary, paid by the hiring company at placement
Plus an additional 5% of the new salary if the member is promoted within two years.
Retainer Clients
$50K
example annual retainer for exclusive first-look access to a House cohort
A holding company like IPG Mediabrands secures recruiting advantage before any candidate reaches the open market — at a fraction of campus-recruiting cost. Stacks on the standard 20% placement fee.
Alumni Network
$2K
annual alumni dues to remain in the Lineage network after the program ends
Networking dinners, new training platforms, and exclusive Lineage activations at Cannes Lions, CES, Possible, and SXSW. Alumni can also seed new Houses as their careers compound.
The alignment is the entire point. Lineage only earns when a hiring company hires — and only earns more when a member is promoted. Hiring companies pay for outcomes, not for marketing or speculation.
Members never see an invoice. Houses never see a tuition check. The credential and the candidate are what get paid for.
| Lineage Group | MBA | Bootcamp | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Free to members | $150K+ upfront | $5–30K upfront |
| Instructor | Active operators | Academics | Varies |
| Network | Direct / personal | Alumni | Peer cohort |
| Hands-on training | Industry sandbox environments | Case method | Project-based |
| Certification value | Leader’s reputation | School prestige | Low |
THE AI ENABLEMENT
AI lets us compress the learning and sharpenthe selection while keeping the human at the center.
Artificial intelligence is changing how we approach problems, training, and creation. Lineage uses it where it earns leverage — and refuses it where it would replace the thing that actually matters.
CURRICULUM & LEARNING
Centralized into the platform. Compressed into months.
Lineage partners directly with the tool vendors that run our industries — bringing their training in-house and rebuilding it as a structured curriculum members move through in a condensed timeframe.
We use AI for deep research on the core principles of each field we serve, then translate it into the platform. Continuously updated as the tooling underneath changes — so what members learn is current, not historical.
SCREENING & SELECTION
AI flatters the resume. We use it to see the human.
Applicants now use AI to write resumes. Hiring companies use AI to vet them. The resume itself is no longer informative. Lineage leans into AI from the opposite direction.
We focus on the constant in any hiring conversation: the human. Psychology and personality assessments, analyzed at scale, let us see past clubs and internships into how a candidate actually thinks. That’s how we identify the top of a large pool without flattening anyone to a list of credentials.
WHY LINEAGE
The difference between a professor and a principal.
MBA Programs, bootcamps, MasterClasses teach business through Nobel laureates and academics. They are exceptional educators. They are not the people making the calls.
Lineage Group is built around operators. The person leading your House is the executive that hiring managers at your target company already know by name. When they send you into a room, you walk in carrying their credibility.
That is not a subtle distinction. It is the entire model.
ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
- —Curriculum designed for broad audiences
- —Instructors selected for fame or credentials
- —Certification tied to institution prestige
- —No economic alignment between teacher and student outcome
LINEAGE GROUP
- →Curriculum built from one operator’s actual career
- →House leaders selected for active industry credibility
- →Certification tied to a name hiring managers trust
- →House leader earns when member earns
FOR LEADERS
You are already mentoring. We built the infrastructure.
Senior operators already field calls, answer questions, and make introductions for the next generation. What they lack is a structure to make that scalable, compensated, and formally attached to their professional legacy.
Founding House leaders receive equity in Lineage Group. They are not contractors. They are co-builders. Their name goes on the door.
Your Masterclass
Content produced by our team. You do the interviews. We build the curriculum.
Your Cohort
We handle member recruiting, vetting, and enrollment end-to-end.
Your Upside
Leaders participate in the revenue share of membership collections, plus potential carry in future Houses under their Lineage.
THE VISION
Lineage compounds.
Lineage Group started in advertising, but will continue to grow from there.
Over time, successful members become House leaders themselves. A person who came through the Kiernan House, built a strong career, and is now a senior operator can found their own House or create a new cohort under their Lineage Group umbrella.
One House produces the next. The lineage compounds.
The first cohort is under 20 people per House.
Lineage Group certifications mean something because not everyone can get one. If you are early-career, high-potential, and ready to invest in accelerated access, apply now.