The Martin Agency has announced that Matt Williams, a 21-year agency veteran, will be promoted to CEO effective Feb. 1. He will succeed John Adams, who has served as chairman and CEO since 1995. Adams will continue in his role as chairman.
As CEO, Williams will lead the development and execution of the company’s business strategy and oversee, through the CFO, the financial operations of the company. Additionally, Williams will oversee account management, business development, corporate communications, the company’s innovation initiatives and the relationship with Martin’s parent company, The Interpublic Group.
Adams will continue to lead the agency’s executive committee as chairman and will maintain several key client relationships while remaining active in select business development opportunities.
Williams most recently served as the agency’s general manager, a role he was promoted to in July of 2011.
Williams joined The Martin Agency in 1991 as an account executive. He moved to the strategic planning department in 1995 and was named partner in 2005.
At The Martin Agency, Williams has led strategic development for accounts as diverse as UPS and GEICO. He has led global strategy development for UPS, Saab Cars and Credit Suisse, working with agencies in London, Stockholm, Frankfurt and the U.S., and has managed strategy on Effie-winning campaigns for UPS, Signet Bank, Bank One and GEICO. Williams has received account planning awards from the American Association of Advertising Agencies for both Saab and UPS.
Williams began his career in advertising at Ketchum Advertising in Philadelphia. He holds a degree in marketing from the College of William and Mary and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Williams is a contributing author to Kellogg on Branding (John Wiley & Sons, 2005). He has been a guest on NPR and Bloomberg News and a speaker at the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Marketing Association. He has consulted on communications strategy with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense and has served as a judge for the Effie Awards, Green Effie and the U.S. Account Planning Awards.
Serving with Williams on Martin’s executive committee are Adams; Mike Hughes, president; Joe Alexander, CCO; Beth Rilee-Kelley, COO; and Earl Cox, chief strategy officer.
The Martin Agency’s clients include BFGoodrich, Discover, GEICO, Hanes, Kraft, Manpower, Mondelez International, Morgan Stanley, PING, Pizza Hut, the American Cancer Society and Walmart.
Trump Names Brendan Carr To Lead The FCC
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC's general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn't like.
Carr has of late embraced Trump's ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in " Project 2025," a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he doesn't know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.
Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed "the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth."
"Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy," Trump said in a statement on Sunday. "He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."
The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic... Read More