Hill Holliday CEO Mike Sheehan today announced that president Karen
Kaplan, a thirty-year veteran of the agency, would succeed him in that
role, effective May 14. A formal announcement will be made at Hill
Holliday’s 45th anniversary party Monday night, which coincides with
Sheehan's 10-year anniversary as CEO. Sheehan will move to the role of
Chairman.
Karen Kaplan, CEO of Hill Holliday (Photo: Business Wire)
Together over the past ten years as CEO and President, Sheehan and
Kaplan have proved an unbeatable team, the driving force behind Hill
Holliday’s growth to more than $2 billion in annual billings and
innovative, business building ideas for blue chip clients such as Bank
of America, Dunkin’ Donuts, Liberty Mutual, John Hancock, Novartis,
Cigna, Major League Baseball and Chili’s. In recent years they drove
financial growth and grew new business, led the charge to lure world
class talent to the agency - including Modernista! founder Lance Jensen
as Chief Creative Officer - and successfully built integration between
strategy, media, creative and analytics.
Sheehan, who joined Hill Holliday as Group Creative Director in 1994,
was named President in 2000, and assumed the roles of CEO and President
on May 13, 2003 from agency founder Jack Connors. “I gave Karen the
President title in June of 2007, which sent a clear message that she
would some day succeed me. And that day is here."
"Karen and I have worked closely together for the better part of two
decades. There is no one who has worked harder or who is better
positioned to lead Hill Holliday to new levels of growth and success.
She was born to be CEO of Hill Holliday, and I am absolutely thrilled to
hand the reins over to her," he added. Sheehan will become Chairman of
the agency for a two-year period. "And not a day more," Sheehan said.
"I'm a creative person by trade. I always like to have a deadline."
Kaplan joined Hill Holliday in 1982 as a receptionist; she was hired by
agency founder Jack Connors after he had rejected 40 other applicants
for the job. During her impressive tenure she worked in nearly every
department at the agency, rising in the ranks of account management
while building the business of clients including Bank of America, John
Hancock, Liberty Mutual, Dunkin’ Donuts, TJX, Novartis and Chili’s to
name a few. In January of 2001 Kaplan was promoted to Managing Director
of the Boston Office, and at the end of that year was named President of
the Boston office. In June 2007 she was named President of the network.
“Hill Holliday is truly a special place where creativity and innovative
thinking are recognized and rewarded, no matter where they come from,”
said Kaplan. “We have never had higher caliber talent than we have
today, and I am incredibly energized about our future and looking
forward to leading Hill Holliday to the next level.”
Anne Finucane, Global Strategy and Marketing Officer at Bank of America,
said, “Karen has been a great partner to me for many years. She’s that
rare talented executive who recognizes the power of great creative while
being deeply committed to our strategy and business success. Best of
all, she knows how to tie it all together to create modern marketing
that works. She’s savvy, confident and driven; a born leader with sharp
instincts, and there’s no one better equipped to take Hill Holliday -
and its clients - into the future.”
Kaplan was selected by Advertising Age for its “Women to
Watch” special report honoring the nation’s top women in advertising,
marketing and media. In 2012 she was named by Advertising Age as
one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising, and by Business
Insider as one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in Advertising.
Kaplan’s accomplishments outside Hill Holliday are equally impressive.
In 2012 she was elected Chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce (only the second woman in its 102 year history) and is the
immediate past President of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. She serves
on the Board of Governors of the Chief Executives’ Club of Boston, on
the Board of Directors of Jobs for Massachusetts, the National
Association of Corporate Directors New England Chapter, the
Massachusetts Conference for Women, and the Post Office Square Trust,
and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, an action-oriented
community of the most effective CEOs, heads of state, Nobel Prize
winners, and non-governmental leaders in the world.
Hill Holliday was recently ranked the 14th largest advertising agency in
the U.S. by Advertising Age, the only New England agency to
make the top 25. The agency was named Media magazine’s full
service Agency of the Year for 2011 and 2012, and is the only agency to
win Adweek’s Media Plan of the Year four years in a row.
About Hill Holliday
Hill Holliday is proud to be among the top marketing agencies in the
country, with 950 employees in Boston, New York, South Carolina, and
Miami. We work on some of the nation’s largest, most demanding, and
complicated pieces of business, and our success came by taking nothing
for granted. We were founded in 1968 by four self-described “ad guys”
and today we bring unbeatable talent and expertise to every area of
communications on behalf of industry leaders like Verizon Wireless, Bank
of America, Liberty Mutual, Dunkin’ Donuts, (RED), Major League
Baseball, John Hancock, Chili’s, CIGNA, and Novartis. For more about our
people, our work, and our culture, please visit http://www.hhcc.com.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130513005908/en/
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