Grey Hires McCann Planners

NEW YORK Grey chief executive officer Jim Heekin has made his first senior hires by tapping top planners Nat Puccio, 50, and Suresh Nair, 46, of Interpublic Group’s McCann Erickson to join as executive vice presidents and co-directors of global strategic planning, a Grey representative confirmed. Both positions are new at the agency here.

Heekin brought both to McCann in the mid-1990s, when he was CEO there, luring them from his previous employer JWT.

The planning team has been credited with McCann’s success on various new-business wins and campaigns, especially its “Priceless” work for MasterCard.