McCann Worldgroup Announces Executive Moves

NEW YORK, July 28, 2011 -

- Bill Kolb to Become CEO of MRM; Marc Landsberg to Lead Strategic Development and Acquisition Initiatives for McCann Worldgroup

McCann Worldgroup today announced a leadership transition at MRM.  Bill Kolb will assume the role of CEO of MRM from Marc Landsberg, who joined McCann Worldgroup last year with a dual executive role - CEO of MRM and President of Corporate Business Development for McCann Worldgroup.  

(Logo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110315/NY65602LOGO )

Landsberg will now focus full-time on his leadership of McCann Worldgroup’s corporate strategic development and acquisition initiatives.  Over the next few months, Landsberg will gradually transition his MRM responsibilities to Kolb after which Landsberg will serve as Non-Executive Chairman of MRM, focusing on key clients and strategic initiatives with Kolb.

As CEO of MRM, Marc was charged with outlining the vision for the company’s long-term success given the rapidly changing landscape.   Most recently, Landsberg led MRM back into the global creative dialogue through a fascinating panel discussion featuring will.i.am and Tod Machover discussing the role of technology in creativity in Cannes.

Prior to joining McCann Worldgroup, Landsberg was a Director of Lake Capital where he guided Lake’s strategy and acquisition efforts in the marketing services sector, along with managing their portfolio of marketing services.  Prior to joining Lake in 2008, Landsberg was global President of Arc Worldwide for three years and led the corporate strategy function at Leo Burnett.

“Marc has added exceptional value to MRM since becoming CEO - establishing a clear vision, growing existing clients, adding new clients and delivering double-digit year over year growth,” said Nick Brien, Chairman and CEO of McCann Worldgroup.  ”Together with Bill, Marc has charted a course for a bright future for MRM.  It is the perfect time for Marc to pass the baton to Bill Kolb and work more closely with me to bring his skills to bear on the strategic development of McCann Worldgroup.”

Kolb most recently served alongside Landsberg as Global President and COO of MRM, a post he has held since September 2007.  In that role, he has worked closely with many of MRM’s largest global clients including General Motors, Verizon, Dell and J&J.  Prior to that, Kolb held a number of leadership positions within McCann Worldgroup.  From May of 2000 until August of 2004, Kolb served alongside Chris Weil as Global President and COO of Momentum then moving to MRM as CFO/COO until September of 2007 when he assumed his present role.  Before joining McCann Worldgroup, Kolb was President of IMS, a global retail strategy group focusing on consumer buying habits and shopper marketing.  A published author and speaker, Bill was a member of the editorial board of the book Marketing’s Secret Weapon: Point of Purchase Advertising, released in March of 2001, and spends a great deal of time focused on global enterprise change management and organizational culture.

“Bill has incredible passion for MRM, its people, its vision and the opportunities that lay ahead of us.  His passion extends to the success of McCann Worldgroup and his desire to see MRM become both one of the best places to work and a recognized global leader in the creative, performance and technology arena, supporting McCann Worldgroup’s overall vision and strategy,” said Brien.

“I am thrilled with the opportunity to lead MRM and honored to be part of our heritage of leaders going back to the legendary Stan Rapp,” said Bill Kolb.  ”MRM is an incredible organization, with a brilliant and committed team that is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the incredibly dynamic marketplace.  For several years we, as an organization, have been laser focused on the convergence of creativity, performance and technology and based on our successes to date the marketplace is paying attention and we are thrilled to be delivering results for our client partners.”

Landsberg added, “Running MRM for the past year has been an amazing professional and personal highlight of my career. Rarely have I encountered such talent - driven, collaborative, wildly smart, and relentless. Working with Bill, I feel really proud of our progress this year against our 5-year plan - our renewed focus on clients, our vision, our new leadership team in the Americas, our financial progress, and our new business momentum - and am highly confident that under Bill’s leadership, the momentum will continue if not accelerate. I’m excited about working closely with Nick and the McCann Worldgroup leadership team to advance our strategic agenda.”

About McCann Worldgroup  

McCann Worldgroup delivers marketing solutions that transform brands and grow businesses. The company is comprised of a collaborative roster of best-in-class agencies that emphasize creativity, innovation, and performance, including McCann Erickson (the world’s largest advertising agency network); MRM (digital marketing/relationship management); Momentum (event marketing/promotion); McCann Healthcare (professional/dtc communications); WGEXP (global production); UM (media management); Weber Shandwick (public relations) and FutureBrand (consulting/design).

About MRM

MRM is a global scale top-five digital and direct agency. We design, create, execute, manage and measure interactions between consumers and brands, which accelerate sales and ROI while igniting passion and loyalty for brands. MRM’s suite of offerings includes brand leadership, strategic services, relationship marketing, design, measurement and analytics, platforms/applications, mobile, SEO/SEM, and offshore production asset and distribution. The agency has 33 offices in 31 countries and counts Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, US ARMY, Intel, Verizon, General Motors, Wells Fargo, Kraft and Nestle among its clients. For more information, please visit www.mrmworldwide.com.

Mary Perhach, EVP, Chief Communications Officer, mary.perhach at mccannwg.com, +1-646-865-4024