Grey’s global CEO Laura Maness departs, to be replaced by… nobody.

The Wiki entry on Grey Global starts with this:

“Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City,[1] and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities.[2] It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.[3]

Grey’s global CEO Laura Maness has just stepped down as CEO, after a three-year stint. A piece in the industry publication Campaign is here. An extract:

“Grey will not appoint a new global CEO. Instead, the agency is shifting to a co-leadership model. Gabriel Schmitt, global chief creative officer, and Jason Kahner, global chief client officer, will jointly lead Grey.”

The bottom line? The female CEO of a global agency was judged to be of no more value to the organisation (maybe less) than one of its receptionists.

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