Laura Maness
About Laura Maness
As Global CEO—only the sixth in the agency's celebrated 105-year history and first woman to attain the role—Laura's building on Grey's international capabilities while bringing people together from across AKQA and the WPP network to deliver breakthrough, high performance work for some of the world's most loved brands. In addition to shaping Grey's global strategy across six continents, Laura is committed to building on the strong foundation of Grey's storytelling prowess and Famously Effective work by fueling a values-led culture of creativity, innovation and impact. Grey and AKQA (both named Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces by Newsweek) are enriching each other’s culture with 5,500 people in 30+ countries continuously breaking new ground through intentional co-creation. Before being appointed Global CEO of Grey, Laura served as CEO of Havas Group's North American flagship agency, Havas NY, driving a culture of purposeful growth and steering a turnaround that earned the agency Digiday’s Most Innovative Culture, Ad Age’s Best Places to Work, AdExchanger’s Best Collaborative Agency Team, The Drum’s Network Agency of the Year, Digiday’s Employer of the Year—and, was the first major network agency in the US and globally to become a certified B Corp. She also oversaw several specialists including a culture-first creator studio (Annex88) and a customer engagement agency (Havas CX). A recognized industry voice speaking at ANA, Ad Age, Adweek, CES, ChiefX, Digiday, Economist, HBR, Mirren and more, Laura's accolades include: one of the first agency leaders to take 3% Conference's Pledge for Pay Equity; Working Mother of the Year and Changing the Game Quantum Leap winner by She Runs It; Campaign magazine Female Frontier honoree for Championing Change; Creativepool's Top Influencer of the Year & Top 25 CEO; Digiday's Top Boss for Worklife; a finalist for The Drum’s CEO of the Year; Act Responsible's 2022 Ad Industry Champion of Good at Cannes; Creative Leader of the Year at Creativepool’s 2023 Annual Awards and Campaign US’s 2024 Inspiring Women Leading the Charge. Laura ignites meaningful change as a sustainability thought leader and Board Director. Her board service spans VC backed Alembic Technologies, Tory Burch, B Lab, 4A’s and ACT Responsible. She previously served on the board and Exec Committee for the world’s largest NGO for orphaned children. She is currently an investor and advisor through Village Global and her own fund This Is Wholehearted, and a founding member of Chief, Women’s Purpose Community, Fast Company Impact Council and The Post.