McCann Erickson Names New North American Leadership

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- McCann Erickson announced today that Hank Summy, one of the industry's most well-regarded digital marketing executives, will join the company as President, North America. Effective immediately, Patrick Lafferty has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of McCann Erickson North America. Summy joins effective November 2011 and will report to Nick Brien, Chairman & CEO, McCann Worldgroup.

In his New York-based role, Summy's initial focus will be McCann's flagship New York office working closely with Chairman & CCO, Linus Karlsson. He also will assume management responsibility for regional McCann agencies across the U.S. and Canada. Along with the established leadership team, his responsibility will be to drive change and deliver the highest standards of creative excellence, strategic innovation, digital velocity and performance measurement.

"Technology continues to disrupt the majority of our clients' existing business models, yet it represents one of the biggest drivers of innovation in marketing, not to mention its tremendous impact on the way we live as a society. To help our clients succeed in today's world, we must be extremely proactive and challenging of the status quo," stated Nick Brien, CEO of McCann Worldgroup.

Brien added, "Hank has deep understanding and experience with modern day marketing whilst possessing the spirit of an entrepreneurial leader necessary to accelerate the transformation of all our North American agencies. He has successfully built technology-marketing businesses that have all achieved double digital growth and deep levels of client satisfaction. Pat is the ideal partner for him, having proven himself to be a highly effective leader across many of our most complex global accounts."

Summy joins McCann from SapientNitro where he was the Managing Director of SapientNitro's New York-based Eastern Region and member of the SapientNitro Leadership Team.  Summy has successfully held leadership roles from the Financial Services business to President of the company's Canadian operations and Manager of Sapient Midwest to his most recent Managing Director post. When Sapient acquired Nitro two years ago, Summy led the successful integration of the two companies, including defining the value proposition and operating model for the combined entity globally. SapientNitro is a top 10 ranked U.S. agency.

Lafferty joined McCann Worldgroup just over a year ago as Managing Director of Global Brands, and established the Global Brands Community (GBC), a very successful collaborative entity comprised of the heads of McCann Worldgroup's key global businesses. Previously, Lafferty's posts included CMO of Travel Channel Media, where he drove double-digit business growth, technological innovation, and helped transform the company from a linear TV network to an integrated travel media business. Earlier he held senior account director posts at Leo Burnett, including key leadership of two of the agency's highest profile businesses, McDonald's and Kellogg's, as well as that agency's U.S. Army business. Previously, he was a Company Commander with the U.S. Army and veteran of three foreign deployments.  He takes on his new role effective immediately.

About McCann Erickson Worldwide

McCann Erickson Worldwide, the world's largest advertising agency network, has operations in more than 120 countries and a client roster that includes preeminent global marketers and many of the world's most famous brands. Headquartered in New York, the agency is a unit of McCann Worldgroup, a leading global marketing solutions network, comprised of a collaborative roster of best-in-class agencies that emphasize creativity, innovation, and performance.

SOURCE McCann Erickson Worldwide