Who

Andrew Robertson is the CEO of BBDO Worldwide, the mega agency controlled by Omnicom.

Backstory

Born in Zimbabwe—his father started the country's first chain of soft-serve ice cream parlors—Robertson was raised in South Africa and England and started his ad career as a media planner at Ogilvy & Mather. After rising through the ranks at O&M, he bolted for J. Walter Thompson in 1989 and managed the firm's biggest account, Kellogg, before moving on to mid-sized British agency WCRS, and then London's Abbott Mead Vickers. (He'd befriended AMV's chairman, Michael Baulk, during his stay at Ogilvy.) In 1999, when AMV was purchased by Omnicom and merged with the Omnicom-controlled BBDO London, Robertson was made CEO of the combined company, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

In 2001, he moved to New York to take the job of president and CEO of BBDO North America, where he was widely viewed as the likely successor to aging BBDO Worldwide CEO Allen Rosenshine. Sure enough, when Rosenshine retired three years later, Robertson was picked for the job, making him, at 44, the youngest-ever CEO of the global agency. He now oversees BBDO Worldwide's 16,000 employees in 287 offices in 77 countries, and reports to Omnicom CEO John Wren.

Of note

When Robertson took the reins at prestigious BBDO Worldwide, the agency had a reputation for being enslaved to tradition—it was known for its dominance of the annual Super Bowl ad bonanza, and its longtime focus on big-budget, celebrity-driven 30-second spots. Robertson was tasked with making BBDO less hidebound, increasing its footprint in interactive media, and adapting to a media landscape characterized by divergence. To that end, his first big move was a highly controversial personnel change. In 2004, he abruptly replaced chief creative officer and BBDO lifer Ted Sann with outsider David Lubars, which initially infuriated mega-client Pepsi since Robertson had neglected to notify them of his intention to can Sann.

Despite the short-term fall-out—Pepsi moved part of its Diet Pepsi account to another agency—the move ultimately paid off. Under Lubars, the agency started churning out the sort of wickedly offbeat, multiplatform advertising associated with small indie agencies. And as BBDO has proven it has a handle on the changing media landscape, new business has flooded in: In addition to existing clients like Chrysler, GE, Volkswagen, HBO, Gillette, Nike, and Pepsi, the agency now boasts new clients like eBay, Hertz, Motorola, Mitsubishi, and Target. All this has been great for BBDO's bottom line. Annual billings have been boosted by 30 percent to more than $4.6 billion.

Personal

The suspenders-wearing Robertson lives in Greenwich with his wife, Susan, whom he met during his days at Ogilvy. They have two daughters and a son.

Pet cause

Robertson is on the board of Autism Speaks—the non-profit foundation founded by NBC chairman Bob Wright and his wife Suzanne—along with Mel Karmazin and Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus.

No joke

Robertson can speak Zulu.