Hamish McLennan

With its 186 agencies in 81 countries, Y&R is the largest division of Young & Rubicam Brands. And Hamish is the youngest person to hold this post in its history, and its first CEO from the Asia-Pacific region.

Hamish thrives on client contact, creative product and the thrill of seeing great work translate into marketplace results. In choosing Tony Granger as his creative partner, he has set the agency on a strong course of innovation and creativity.

At Cannes 2010, Y&R;’s flagship agency was named the #1 agency in the United States and #2 in the world. The network jumped to the #3 ranking at Cannes, and was also awarded Network of the Year honors by the ADC and NY Festivals.

Building strong creative agencies is a recurrent theme in Hamish’s career. Hamish joined Y&R; in 2002 as Chairman and CEO of Y&R; Brands Australia/New Zealand. He was a change agent that helped result in the agency’s dramatic turnaround. His bold fixes, including drawing top new talent, drove new business to extraordinary records and earned the agency a reputation as one of the strongest creative agencies in the region.

Hamish also created George Patterson Y&R; – the largest and most diverse marketing services group in Australasia, by spearheading the merger of Y&R; Australia and George Patterson Bates. This was a homecoming of sorts, as Hamish spent 17 years at GPB, where he worked in Hong Kong as International Client Director, and by age 32 was Managing Director of GPB Melbourne.

In 1999 he was appointed National Managing Director of GPB Australia. Hamish has managed Wunderman and a roster of other Y&R; companies that includes The Campaign Palace, Ideaworks, PPR and 20:20 Brand Action.

He is a member of the Board of Directors for the UNCF and sits on the Board ofthe Ad Council, as well. Hamish is based in the Y&R; network’s flagship New York office.