M&C Saatchi NY Appoints Graceann Bennett Chief Strategy Officer [Professional Services Close – Up]

M&C Saatchi announced that Graceann Bennett will be joining its New York office as Chief Strategy Officer.

Bennett will start in mid-December and will report to NY CEO, Jeff Brooks.

She joins Pierre Lipton, Chief Creative Officer, as the third equity partner in the business. Bennett replaces Sveta Doucet, who will leave the agency at the end of the year.

According to a release, Bennett spent the past 6 years of her career as Managing Partner and Strategic Planning Director of Ogilvy Chicago. She was a driving force in tripling the size of the office during her tenure through new business wins, organic growth and brand consulting initiatives.

Graceann was the originator of Ogilvy Chicago's initiative to better understand the digital needs and behaviors of women. She published Women in their Digital Domain: Digital Paths to Seeking, Sharing and Shopping: a study done in collaboration with Microsoft and Mindshare in 2009, and then expanded this work to understand the global 'digital divas' of 2013 and beyond, which she presented this past summer at the Cannes Advertising Festival.

Prior to joining Ogilvy, she headed up the strategic planning departments of Leo Burnett and Arnold Worldwide. Earlier in her career she held senior planning posts at agencies including Mullen and TBWA/Chiat Day. Throughout her career Graceann has worked on many famous brands including Guinness, Coca-Cola, Dove, UPS, Volkswagen, SC Johnson, Truvia and American Family Insurance.

She has also applied her skills as a global brand strategist well beyond advertising to help artists, architects and global social enterprises better position themselves for maximum impact and cultural relevance. She is currently a Global Ambassador of SmartWoman, an economic empowerment initiative using technology to drive social change for women around the world.

Graceann is dedicated to thought leadership and has published work on everything from the global state of manhood, to mainstreaming sustainability, to tech-forward kids and their families, to reinterpretations and manifestations of the American Dream.

Jeff Brooks, NY CEO, said: "As the NY agency is still relatively young, we have been spending the past year building our foundation and signing up new clients primarily on a project basis. The ambition moving forward is to compete for larger pieces of retained business." Brooks added: "Graceann is the perfect person for this. She has loads of big brand experience, an excellent track record in both insight development and new business, and a passion for technology and entrepreneurship."

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