GLOBAL – NEW YORK, USA, AUGUST 2011 – Interpublic Group has announced that it has elected Dawn Hudson, currently Vice Chairman of The Parthenon Group, to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.
“Dawn has great marketing experience on the agency and client side and joins our board at a key moment. While this is an incredibly exciting time to work in communications, it’s also a period of immense change. Interpublic will be well-served to have a true practitioner as part of our leadership team, someone who brings a deep understanding of how to connect consumers with brands and drive industry-leading innovation,” said Michael I. Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic Group.
“Dawn also has terrific board experience, and currently serves as Chairman of the LPGA. Most important for Interpublic, our clients and our 41,800 employees, is Dawn’s proven commitment to strategic excellence in marketing and communications,” Roth concluded.
With Hudson’s election, four out of the ten members of the Interpublic Board are women, making it one of six Fortune 500 companies with a 40% or higher representation of women, based on analysis in the 2010 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors.
Hudson has more than 20 years of strategic brand-building experience behind some of the world’s best-known consumer products. Hudson recently completed an 11-year stint at PepsiCo. From 2002 until 2008, she served as President and then CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America, the $6 billion refreshment beverage unit of PepsiCo in the United States and Canada. Previously, as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, Hudson led PepsiCo’s brand strategy and marketing efforts in North America. She launched the popular "Joy of Cola" campaign in 1999 and guided Pepsi in its largest summer promotion ever, a tie-in with "Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace." She first joined PepsiCo in 1996 as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Frito-Lay.
Prior to her work at Pepsi and Frito-Lay, Hudson spent 13 years in the marketing, advertising and branding strategy arena with leadership positions at major agencies, including DMB&B and at Omnicom. She has been on the board of the LPGA for nine years, and as Chairman has led the association’s global expansion strategy. Her other board positions include PF Chang’s China Bistro, Lowe’s Home Improvement Company and Allergan Inc.
Hudson has won the "B*East" award from District Two of the American Advertising Federation, has been named twice to Advertising Age’s list of Top 50 Marketers and has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement.
