Kristen Cavallo adds MullenLowe global CEO title

The Martin Agency CEO Kristen Cavallo is adding another title to her business card: MullenLowe Group global CEO. Cavallo will continue reporting to Alex Leikikh, who has held the CEO title since 2015. Leikikh will remain chairman of Mullen Lowe while also assuming the newly created role of executive VP of Interpublic Group of Cos. He will oversee several of the holding company’s U.S. creative agencies including Campbell-Ewald, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch New York, The Martin Agency and Tierney. See all of Ad Age's 2023 Agency A-List winners here The new appointments are effective immediately. Cavallo said she does not plan to name a successor CEO at Martin and will lead both agency entities moving forward. But she said the situation could change. “If I find that I can't do it, then I will not let any agency suffer, but my hope and ambition is to do them both,” Cavallo said.”I'm going to rely heavily on the leadership teams at both agencies and certainly Alex." “We have very complementary skills," Cavallo said of Leikikh. "I've always loved applying my strategic background towards thinking of an agency as a brand and coming up with positioning and a narrative and really honing that towards growth and new business. “Alex is really great at operationalizing and bringing all that sense of mission to the practice of advertising.” This is a return to a familiar place for Cavallo, who started her career at Mullen in 1994, prior to its merger with Lowe & Partners in 2015. She joined Martin in 1998, eventually becoming a director of business development before returning to Mullen in 2011 as chief strategy officer. She was promoted to president of Mullen’s Boston headquarters office in 2014. Three years later she was named CEO of Martin Agency. When she took on that role in 2017, Cavallo said she requested that Martin switch its reporting structure so that Martin reported directly to MullenLowe. (The agency had previously reported to McCann). “I requested that I report to Alex because I trusted him enormously based on my eight years having worked with him at Mullen,” Cavallo said. A global role Cavallo said she had contemplated making a career move for about a year before the new role came up. “I reached out to people who had career paths that were interesting to me and I asked them what questions they asked themselves when they were interviewing, and what they wished they'd asked themselves, and did the job turn out to be what they thought,” Cavallo said. “I probably interviewed close to 20 people. I wrote down things that I thought would be interesting filters for me in my journey, and in the end I think I fell into advertising, to be quite honest with you, in 1994, and I think I'm choosing it in 2022.” Ultimately Cavallo said she was looking for a global opportunity. In her expanded role she will be leading over 4,500 employees at MullenLowe in addition to the nearly 500 employees at Martin. She will now oversee Mullen’s 20 offices in 13 countries, which include major hubs in the U.S., London, Mumbai, Singapore and Bogota. Currently, the U.S makes up 70% of MullenLowe’s business and the U.K. is its second-biggest market. Some of the agency’s biggest clients in the U.S. include KFC, which it won earlier this year, and Acura. Globally the agency’s biggest clients include Unilever and Bayer. Moving forward, one of the key challenges for MullenLowe is winning more global accounts, according to Leikikh. “The thing that really helps those [global] markets is a global win, whether it's a U.S. brand that we distribute through certain markets, or whether it's a U.K.-based brand," Leikikh said. Keeping her voice Another reason Cavallo elected to stay in the ad industry was that she said it allows her to have the most “impact” in a world that has given brands a platform to create change. Cavallo referenced Twitter, for instance, which continues to lose advertisers under Elon Musk. “It's brands that are holding the line on making sure that Twitter doesn't turn into the worst possible version of itself,” Cavallo said. “Brands have an enormous role to play in a world where people are relying less on government and religion to stand their ground. And I think brands are stepping up and consumers are holding brands accountable.” Cavallo, who has been outspoken on issues such as women's rights and the importance of valuing agency creativity, also said she came to a realization that in another industry she may not have the same “freedom” to use her “voice” as she does now. When the Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in June, Cavallo was one of the many agency executives that spoke out on the issue on LinkedIn, when she said the Martin Agency would cover travel expenses related to abortions. She also made headlines in February, when she called out Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong for suggesting its Super Bowl ad was not made by an agency when the agency Accenture Song was behind the ad. “I had to spend a lot of time thinking about 'Is that voice valuable to me?'” Cavallo said.” Am I okay giving it up or not? And I decided it wasn't worth giving up. I wanted to work within an industry where I had the freedom to comment on things that I believe in and that mattered to me.” Read more: Super Bowl ad controversy sparks call for change Removing conflicts of interest In his new role overseeing the portfolio of creative agencies, Leikikh said his focus will be on finding more ways for agencies under his purview to collaborate. That could be by sharing resources or helping manage conflicts of interest on the new-business front. “There are RFPs (request for proposals) flowing in across the agencies all the time,” Leikikh said “Some [shops] have conflicts, some don't have resources, some are just not interested in certain brands. So before those RFPs go back to client consultants with a ‘No’ stamp, they [will now] go into this sort of constellation of agencies and then those agencies have an opportunity to respond to those RFPs.” Other benefits will include talent retention and development, according to Leikikh, who says the collaboration will allow IPG to offer more opportunities for talent who are looking to leave their agency or relocate. While Leikikh doesn’t foresee any mergers between any of the agencies within the portfolio, he isn’t ruling out acquisitions that could help the agencies collectively. “We do see an opportunity to look at acquisitions that would serve as centers of excellence across the different needs of the agencies,” Leikikh said. Added Cavallo: "In contrast to a lot of our competitors in the industry, where they're walking away from individual agency brands, I think IPG is choosing to double down on individual agency brands." Leikikh will also be involved in “special projects” across the holding company, according to a statement by IPG. “A good example would be what are our global capabilities on the production side of the house overall at IPG and how can we be smarter about how we deploy those?" said Leikikh. "It'll be those kinds of projects.” Ad Age Next: CMO Get your tickets for the Dec. 7 event in New York Register here

Kristen Cavallo adds MullenLowe global CEO title

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