Bob James, the former Chairman and CEO of McCann Erickson and an Advertising Hall of Famer, passed away Aug. 29 at age 84. Today, Bill Kolb, the current chairman-CEO of McCann Worldgroup, issued this tribute sent to agency staffers outlining the role James played in building the shop.
To All,
McCann Worldgroup’s stature today as a leading global creative network that partners with the industry’s most sophisticated global marketers is a given. So it is with great sadness that I am sharing with you that Bob James, a key leader in driving us to this position of global prominence, has passed away. Bob was 84 and lived in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife.
Bob James was a dynamic leader who proved what could be accomplished when a powerful and all-encompassing vision was matched with the discipline and passion to make it a reality. Bob, who had started his career on the client side at P&G and Colgate Palmolive, was heading another U.S.-focused Interpublic agency (one where he had been named CEO at the age of 38) when he was recruited in 1981 to take over McCann’s U.S. operations as vice chairman.
McCann was then reeling from a major account loss and, as Business Week declared, “Madison Avenue was taking bets that the agency would never recover.” But thanks to the vison, tenacity and love of advertising that made Bob an unstoppable leader, we began an extraordinary revitalization and massive global expansion with many client partners. A number of accounts were won in the early 1980s that helped rebuild our global business, including the return of Nestle as a U.S. client and new assignments from other multinationals, such as Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever.
In 1984, Bob was named CEO of McCann-Erickson Worldwide, and he began the reinvigoration of the worldwide agency that would double our size within five years, lead us to become the first agency in the industry with more than $1 billion in revenue, and advance us to become the largest worldwide network in the industry’s rankings. Bob expanded our network into new markets, including those opening in Eastern Europe, and focused both on strengthening our local agencies as well as our global client relationships. As he strengthened our operations, we then ranked among the top five agencies within 47 countries and the number of global clients we handled in 10-plus countries quadrupled from 10 to 43.
As the citation noted when he was elected into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2010, he “bet the company–at the height of its success–on the belief that globalization would be the future of brands and marketing.”
McCann veterans knew Bob to be tough and smart. Always focused. Demanding but fair to the people he worked with, and loyal to his friends. He was passionate and competitive in both his work and his personal life. He loved working with smart people, especially those who lived large and thought big. He was relentless about meeting his own ambitious goals. His motto throughout his life was “What one can conceive, one can achieve.”
Bob retired in 1994 and designated John Dooner, the man who founded McCann Worldgroup in 1997, as his successor.
Bob served the industry as Chairman of the 4A’s, among other important positions. He also was active as a leader in many civic organizations, including serving as Chairman of the National Air & Space Museum and Chairman of the President’s Circle of the National Academy of Sciences. An avid—and fiercely competitive—sailor, he also served as Commodore of The New York Yacht Club.
In 2020, he founded the James Prize in Science and Technology Integration at the National Academy of Sciences to recognize contributions made by researchers who adapted knowledge from outside their own fields to solve major contemporary challenges.
Bob was particularly proud of the energy and ultimate results of a worldwide leadership meeting he had convened in 1987 to set the ambitious growth goals that would be delivered on. Among the speakers was President Ronald Reagan, then speaking from the White House, who videotaped a message about the characteristics of leadership and praising Bob as part of that speech. As President Reagan said, befitting Bob, “To have the passion of a leader is to take the inner drive of competition and not only embrace it, but master it.”
Please join me in sending your solemn thoughts and prayers, as well as our deepest gratitude for his leadership, to Bob’s family: Anne, his wife of 53 years; his three children, Robert, Jr., Victoria Lincoln and Jeffrey; and his seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
We are here today in no small part because of Bob James’ leadership. Thank you, Bob!!
