This evening, The ADVERTISING Club conducts its 115th Annual Meeting of Members to announce a new Chairman, three new Board members, and nine recipients of the prestigious President’s Awards which honor outstanding contributions and support to the organization. The event is taking place at the Midtown Loft in New York City.
As he steps down from his role as Chairman (and becomes Chairman Emeritus), C. Thom Gruhler, President of McCann Erickson, is handing the Chairmanship reins to Beth-Ann Eason, who has been a Senior Vice President on the Board of Directors, is a Co-Chair of the MEDIACTION Future Leaders Diversity Initiative, and is SVP/GM of Epicurious.com, Gourmet Live and Brides.com at Conde Nast. Moving into the SVP position is Laurel Rossi, President, Euro RSCG Worldwide Strat Farm. Mari Kim Novak, Senior Director Global Agencies, Industries and Insights, Microsoft is once again nominated as Vice President, and Carl Fremont, EVP, Global Media Director, Digitas, is being named a Vice President. Ron Fierman, President & CEO, Digital Pulp, remains the Club’s Treasurer.
New Board of Directors this term are:
ยท Edward Bullock, Vice President, Diversity, L’Oreal USA
ยท Mark D’Arcy, Director of Global Creative Solutions, Facebook
ยท Wayne Powers, SVP, Ad Sales, North America, Yahoo!
Nominated for his second year as President of the Young Professionals Committee is Ori Zohar, Communications Strategist, UM. The year’s Rising Star award for exceptional work for the Young Professionals group is going to Matt Rakow, Assistant Account Executive at Grey Group and an alumni of The Club’s intern program in 2009.
Retiring Board members include Lynne Seid, Partner, Heidrick & Struggles; Peter Bopp, Partner, Leadership Strategy Group; and Matt Freeman, CEO, MediaBrands WW Ventures.
A highlight of the evening is always the naming of The ADVERTISING Club’s President’s Award recipients, which honors members who have made an impact on the Club through their enormous generosity of time, commitment and enthusiasm on committees and programs. This year’s winners are:
ยท Jerry Canning, Industry Director/Financial Services, Google
ยท Marie Devlin, Senior Vice President/Advertising, Media & Sponsorship, American Express
ยท Carl Fremont, Senior Vice President, Global Media Director, Digitas
ยท Jackie Kelly, Global Chief Executive Officer, UM
ยท Michael Lebowitz, Founder & CEO, Big Spaceship
ยท Rob Master, Vice President, Media, Americas, Unilever
ยท Ty Montague, Co-Founder, Co:Collective
ยท Adam Shlachter, Managing Director, Digital, MEC North America
ยท Mark Tutssel, Global Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide
“I’m very proud to be given the honor to help steer this organization,” says Beth-Ann Eason, the Club’s new Chairman. “We are focused now on several important and ambitious efforts such as the MEDIACTION Future Leaders Diversity Initiative, the ever-growing International ANDY Awards (this year with a new Chairman), and a thought-provoking Media Day. I look forward to reinforcing the Club’s mission to inform, stimulate and support members to “Build Their Own Brand.”
The ADVERTISING Club is the premier organization for all communications professionals in New York. The Club, founded in 1896, offers its members a forum to exchange ideas, make connections and honor excellence. The Club’s Foundation provides students numerous educational outreach programs that give back to build a stronger and more diverse advertising and marketing community. The Club is the facilitating sponsor of the International ANDY Awards, which acknowledge outstanding creative achievement around the world in the field of advertising.