There are people who do their work. And there are people who do it with passion. There are people who lead. And there are truly inspiring leaders. Keith Reinhard, DDB Worldwide Chairman Emeritus, is one of the most inspiring and passionate leaders I've ever met in my life. And his visit to Riga, Latvia was a dream that recently came true.

My first meeting with Keith Reinhard happened to be soon after I joined DDB. It was at a DDB course "Dialogue with Keith and Ken" in New York in December 2002. His speech about Passion as the most important ingredient in creative achievement inspired me a lot. He said "Nothing great has ever been accomplished without passion. When all our hearts are on fire with passion, we'll do something great together. We'll transform the world." I was also surprised at the openness, warmth and humanity of this person whose responsibility it was to lead a company which ranks among the world's largest and most creative advertising agency networks.

I met Keith Reinhard several more times during DDB conferences and industry lectures. After another very inspiring presentation in Helsinki in 2004, I asked Keith a very straightforward question, "What can we do to get you to visit Riga." And Keith said, "I'll come when you're the most creative and awarded agency in Latvia." We were in the top 3 at that time. Three years later, DDB Latvia was named #1 creative agency in the reputation chart, but in 2009 we received a record number of awards including the Effie Grand Prix and became the most awarded agency in Latvia. I wrote the good news to Keith and we started to plan his visit to Riga.

On the occasion of DDB Latvia's 15th Anniversary celebrations in September 2010, Keith Reinhard and his wife Rose-Lee visited Latvia. What a gift! We were honored to have Keith in our office for an inspiring Q&A session about creativity and creative selling, our culture and the four freedoms. We also discussed things that have and have not changed since the days of MadMan. Keith reminded us that great ideas and hard work haven't changed, quoting Bill Bernbach "A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man, with his obsessive drive to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, and to take care of his own." Keith added, "Those basic drives haven't changed over the centuries and won't change now. The Digital Age has simply provided us with more ways in which to respond to those drives." And I can say for sure that our team is even more empowered and eager than ever to unleash the power of Social Creativity.

Keith gave a public presentation called "Power of Creativity" at Spīķeri Concert Hall that was already fully booked several days before the event. Even the online live stream of the presentation had to be specially organized to satisfy the demand to listen to the legendary ad man. During his presentation Keith proposed that everyone should first develop a keen understanding of the status quo and carefully observe "What is" and then using our imagination dare to ask "What if?" And Keith celebrated creativity and shared many inspiring ideas from all around the world, but also applauded Latvia for its creative approach in creating the remarkable Latvia Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo where visitors are offered the chance to experience something new: to fly.

After returning to New York, Keith wrote in his Twitter profile @kreatividad following words: "Back from Riga. Met wonderful, talented people. They deserve more recognition, as a people and a country."

Thank you, Keith, for igniting the fires of passion in our hearts and challenging our imagination with a great question in our minds, "What if?".