Havas Promotes Laura Maness to New York President

By Erik Oster 

Havas Worldwide promoted North America chief growth officer Laura Maness to president of Havas Worldwide New York, effective March 1, AdAge reports. In the newly created position, Maness will manage day-to-day activities in the New York office and handle key accounts, including Dos Equis, TD Ameritrade and Liberty Mutual, while reporting to Havas Worldwide global CEO Andrew Benett. Havas is currently conducting a search, primarily externally, to succeed Maness in her previous position. 

“To have 37 villages around the world, with not just creative and media but all relevant disciplines integrated, it’s the largest, most scaled offer in the industry, so we need the New York village and all flagship villages to help lead the way in regard to innovation, culture and growth,” Benett told AdAge.

Maness originally arrived at Havas three years ago as chief growth officer and has headed up the agency’s new business development and organic growth for the U.S. in the position. She joined the agency from Propane Studio, the West Coast business development operation for Draftfcb, where she spearheaded growth initiatives across the agency’s global network and client roster, particularly its  Hewlett-Packard account, while serving as director of business development for nearly three years. Prior to that, Maness served as director of interactive business development at Wunderman for around two years, following nearly four years as director of business development for WPP/Wunderman-owned Designkitchen. Before joining Designkitchen, Maness held a series of management positions with Chicago-based digital shops Black Dog Interactive and Giant Step.

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