Kristen Cavallo, MullenLowe’s global CEO, is retiring from the ad industry after 30 years to pursue a career in politics and social activism.

The decision comes just over a year after Cavallo took on the global CEO role at Interpublic Group of Cos.’ MullenLowe while maintaining her chief executive title at IPG’s The Martin Agency. Shortly after, MullenLowe’s then-U.S. CEO Lee Newman departed the agency and she picked up many of those duties.

“Last year I did almost three roles and that took a lot out of me, I feel like I got three years in one,” Cavallo said. 

Speaking from Los Angeles, where she had just broken the news of her retirement to executives of MullenLowe and clients in the area, Cavallo, 55, said her decision had less to do with her expanded role and more with a feeling that had been gnawing at her for years.

“It was less about me in advertising, and it was more about how divisive I feel the world has gotten, matched with how agnostic I feel people are about candidates and going to the polls and playing a role in our democracy,” Cavallo said. “And that feeling of kind of helplessness or hopelessness I think grew and [I kept]  feeling like maybe I could apply these skills towards an end that might have far-reaching implications, different implications than in advertising.”

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Cavallo has previously made her political aspirations known. In a 2022 Ad Age article she said that if she weren’t in advertising, she would consider running for governor of Virginia. 

When asked which political party she supports as she looks to a new beginning, Cavallo confidently states “Blue,” and takes a pause to laugh before continuing. “Anyone that's not trying to take away my rights or my daughter's rights.”

That’s the upfront nature that the advertising industry has grown accustomed to seeing from Cavallo, who at times found herself and The Martin Agency in the center of industry-wide debates, like when she responded to a series of tweets in 2022 from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who seemed to take credit for the brand’s QR-based Super Bowl ad rather than acknowledging the agency that was behind the spot. Martin also sparked industry debate on the effectiveness of creativity with its viral Snoop Dogg tweet for the brand Solo Stove.

Cavallo said she isn’t looking to run for any political office at the moment, but instead is hoping to volunteer on campaigns for political candidates over the next two years. She also said she can see herself working with organizations that align with her ideals, like Planned Parenthood or the American Civil Liberties Union, but admits she will need to do more research to find the right organization.

Realities like the overturning of Roe v. Wade and ongoing gun violence in the U.S. have been top of mind for the executive.

“There’s just a trend, unfortunately, of things where I think we should have seen action and we didn’t,” Cavallo said.

The internal pressure for Cavallo rose due to upcoming elections this year, especially since one of the biggest topics in the U.S.—and particularly Virginia, where Martin is based—is abortion rights. Virginia is regarded as the last Southern state to maintain a pro-choice decision.

Loyalties remain

Cavallo said she wanted to make sure she had a succession plan before making her move and discussed retirement plans over a year ago with Alex Leikikh, the IPG executive VP and MullenLowe Group chairman, who will return to his MullenLowe global CEO role following Cavallo’s last day on March 31.

Cavallo will remain in an advisory capacity for MullenLowe and Martin until 2025. Some non-compete clauses related to agencies and clients won’t affect her new career goals, she said.

“I care enormously about both MullenLowe and Martin,” said Cavallo. “I’ve spent my whole career, with the exception of a few years, at one of those two agencies, and I’ve been very loyal to them both and to IPG. And that loyalty was important to me … I couldn’t see myself ever working against their best interests, and I want to make sure that they were in good, solid hands.”

She found two successors that didn't fit the traditional mold of making an account lead a CEO, which has become commonplace in the industry.

In January, Cavallo stepped down from her role at Martin and appointed its chief creative officer, Danny Robinson, as CEO. In November, The Community’s chief creative officer, Frank Cartagena was named U.S. CEO of MullenLowe.

“Far too often, [the industry has] moved away from creative people in [the CEO] role,” Cavallo said. “It's always helpful when the person running the company understands the product of the company and I feel like creative people should aspire to that role. We often praise creative people for their ingenuity or their creativity, obviously, or their writing or their design skills. I don't know that we praise them for their business acumen as often as we should.”

Prior to her current role, Cavallo spent six years as CEO of The Martin Agency. She became the agency’s first-ever female CEO in 2017 at a time when the agency was looking to move past sexual assault allegations faced by its former chief creative officer. One of Cavallo’s first steps was closing the wage gap between female and male employees at the agency. 

Visibility and fearlessness

Since then Cavallo has modernized Martin's leadership team, which now features several female leaders and espouses a “Fighting Invisibility” positioning. Under Cavallo, the agency was named to Ad Age’s A-List several times, including notching the Agency of the Year honor in 2023.

“Unless you’ve been living under an advertising rock, you have a pretty good idea of the transformative acts that have helped define Kristen’s time as CEO at Martin,” Robinson said in a statement. “With her dedication to defending our value as an industry, she’s a great example of leadership. And Kristen wields her influence with a combination of passion and grace. She helped shape the trajectory of my career, and reinforced for all of us at Martin what it feels like to be fearless.”

Cavallo said she is going to begin her retirement by volunteering her time and putting on some fundraisers. Two candidates she’s paying attention to are U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat running for governor of Virginia, and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

There’s a more visible change in Cavallo as well: Late last year, she let her hair go gray as part of her evolution.

“Choosing to retire from a career I love and do something different is both scary and exciting. That’s my definition of liberating, and dyeing my hair gray or letting my hair go gray was also incredibly liberating. My mom was so nervous when I did it. She thought it was going to make me look older. Probably a number of people did, but most of the women that I talked to were supportive,” said Cavallo. “This next chapter just seemed like as good a time as ever to do it.”

Political debates

Growing up, Cavallo dreamed of being an astronaut, not a politician. Her interest in politics, she said, was fostered at a young age thanks to the political debates she would have with her father who was in the military.

“The first time I ever had the right to vote, [my father] got a flip chart, and every night for a week, he would give me questions and I would have to answer them for the candidate of my choice so that he knew that I wasn’t just blindly voting for someone,” Cavallo said. “One night I remember he was like, ‘How does your candidate stand on the droughts in the Prairie states?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And this is before the internet. So I’d go out and read a whole bunch of newspapers and come back, and the next day I would answer it. And then he would say, ‘Alright, what about the war on drugs?’ or ‘What do you think is going on with the Iran-Contra affair?’”

A generation later, she often talks politics with her son and her daughter, who took Cavallo to her first pro-choice rally two years ago.

Known as a world traveler, Cavallo, who once climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with her son, said she is going to take some time to travel to Spain to hike the famous El Camino path, which is 500 miles long. The route she will be taking will take five weeks, she said. Cavallo then plans to attend her son’s wedding in the summer as she focuses her sights on her new journey.

“[I’ll miss] the people. The people that are attracted to this industry tend to be curious, problem solvers, thick-skinned with a great amount of grit,” Cavallo said. “They have to keep getting up every day, even though 90% of their ideas die, and have just as much enthusiasm and hope and finding the next great idea. I'll miss really good, juicy business problems. Those are fun for me as a strategist to untangle and sort through. I will miss being surprised every single day. In 30 years, I was never bored. I can honestly say that. And I think that is a gift.”