Andree was born in Detroit. He was raised in a religious household as the youngest of twelve children.[1] His father worked as a union ironworker, janitor, and butcher. Andree attended Brother Rice High School, an all-boys Catholic school.[1] In 1979, he was a finalist for Mr. Basketball of Michigan (then known as Retro Mr. Basketball), which recognizes Michigan's best high school senior male basketball players.[4] Andree received a basketball scholarship from the University of Notre Dame. He attended the university from 1979 to 1983,[5] and earned a bachelor's degree in economics.[1][6]
In 1985, he joined the Toyota Pacers; as part of his contract, he worked in Toyota's Tokyo-based global sales office, wanting to acquire business experience and expertise. He played for the Toyota Pacers for five years.[1]
Executive
Toyota moved Andree from Japan to New York City, where he oversaw corporate advertising, investor relations, and public affairs for North America. Andree worked for Toyota for thirteen years (including eight in New York),[6] before accepting a marketing and communications position at Canon Inc.'s New York office.[1][6] He then worked for The Dilenschneider Group, a private equity firm,[1] before heading to chemical company BASF as vice president of corporate communications in 2001.[8][9][10] In 2002, Andree returned to the NBA, this time as senior vice president of communications, where he also handled crisis communication for incidents such as the Pacers–Pistons brawl.[11][12]
Andree joined DCA Advertising (now known as Dentsu America) in 2006,[1][13] where he served as chief executive from 2006 to 2010.[5] He became the first non-Japanese executive officer in 2008, and was appointed president and chief executive of Dentsu Holdings USA, adding responsibility for all operations in the Americas. He held Dentsu Network West's chief executive position from 2010 to 2012, overseeing the company's operations in the Americas, Europe, and Australia.[1][5][13] In 2012, Andree was named senior vice president of Dentsu Inc., and chief executive of the Dentsu Network, a newly created organization for Dentsu's operations outside Japan.[13][14] He was leading Dentsu's global operations and working from an office in Tribeca, as of 2012,[1] and held the senior vice president of Dentsu Inc. role until 2013.[5] After Dentsu acquired Aegis Group during 2012–2013,[15] forming Dentsu Aegis Network, Andree held the executive chairman role and was promoted to executive vice president of Dentsu Inc.[16] That same year, he was also appointed the first non-Japanese executive to serve on Dentsu's board of directors. In 2019, he began serving in the chief executive role as well, replacing Jerry Buhlmann.[17] Andree is a member of Dentsu Aegis Network's board, and serves as executive vice president of Dentsu Inc.[18] He has been credited with helping Dentsu acquire many companies, including Aegis Group plc.[1][10][13]
