Lisa Donohue, CEO of Starcom USA, has added still another award to the lengthy list of honors she’s accumulated over the past 24 years as a leading light of Starcom and MediaVest media companies.
Donohue was named the 2011 CAF Advertising Woman of the Year and will be honored at a reception and luncheon Friday, Oct. 7 at the Hilton Hotel Chicago.
In the one year since Donohue has been helming Starcom, she is credited with bringing in $1.7 billion of the company’s $9.1 billion in billings, by effectuating such changes as renovating the company culture and the idea-based way Starcom connects with its clients.
A native of Milton, Mass. Donohue interviewed with several ad agencies after graduating from Brown University, but her first choice was working with Leo Burnett in Chicago. The agency hired her in 1987 and while she wanted to be an account person, Burnett’s training program started with media and media is where she remained.
She worked her way up to EVP/managing director on accounts including Morgan Stanley, Discover Card, Nintendo and Philip Morris Corporate.
Prior to helming Starcom, Donohue had been president of Starcom MediaVest’s Truth & Design Group, where she was credited with transforming the agency’s strategic planning into an ideas-based approach that best connects brands with consumers through proprietary tools and approaches.
As a member of MediaVest’s Executive Team, Donohue oversaw the agency’s Sight, Sound and Motion unit, the agency’s P&G-dedicated investment group. And as leader of the product development team, she helped MediaVest garner 25 first and finalist awards, including Emmy, EFFIE, Creative Media Award, Adweek BUZZ and Reggies accolades.
Donohue is also active in the global SMG network’s Leadership Board and Global Product Committee; a board member for SMG Exchange (SMGX), the network’s initiative to better steward market intelligence, digital acceleration and client ad spend across its American agencies.
Donohue the sixth Ad Woman from the Publicis Groupe
Donohue is the sixth Ad Woman of the Year from the Publicis Groupe companies in recent years. She follows former Starcom CEO Renatta McCann; Leo Burnett’s former CEO Linda Wolf, EVP/account management Nina Abnee and EVP/general counsel Carla Michelotti, and Lapiz president/CEO Dolores Kunda.
Other Ad Women of the Year honorees since 2000 have been Dana Anderson, president/CEO, FCB; Marlene Peleo-Lazar, CCO/VP McDonald’s; Yvonne Furth, president/COO, Draft Worldwide; Fay Ferguson,co-CEO, Burrell; Lisa Cochrane, VP/marketing, Allstate; and Karen Sauder, managing director Draftfcb.
The Women’s Advertising Club of Chicago, incorporated in 1918 and absorbed by the Chicago Federation 10 years ago, set out with a mission of advancing women’s careers in advertising and encouraging ad women to become involved in civic, business and philanthropic organizations “wherever advertising skills are needed.”
Although WAC established a national award program, it did not recognize a local ad woman until 1958. Over the past 53 years major agency or corporate advertising executives have received the prestigious recognition.
The one exception occurred in 1979, when Ruth L Ratny, the then-editor/publisher of a film industry publication and former filmmaker was the honoree.
