Steve Harding has been named global CEO of O&M’s brand activation network OgilvyAction. The London-based Harding joined Ogilvy in 2005 when he merged his company Tarantula with O&M’s 141 Worldwide, which was eventually relaunched as OgilvyAction in 2007.
Harding, who succeeds 30-year Ogilvy vet Rick Roth, will lead a management team that includes North American CEO Sheila Hartnett, Asia-Pacific president John Goodman, Latina GM Regis Duarte and BAT worldwide managing director David Fox. In a statement, Ogilvy’s worlwide CEO Miles Young says of Harding, “Steve has been the convenor of our management team, and it is natural that he should step up. He is truly an activation professional. He has selling in his bones, and a real vision for how the business creates strategic advantage by affecting behaviours…Steve and his superb team are tasked with positioning to lead this discipline as a global ‘must-have’ for clients old and new.”
Harding’s stints prior to joining Ogilvy and starting up Tarantula in 1998 include sales and marketing roles at Smith and Nephew and Carlsberg Tetley.