Ogilvy & Mather Group announced today that Charlie Rudd would become O&M Advertising’s new CEO. Rudd is currently Chief Operating Officer of BBH. He will sit on the group board and report into Annette King, CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK.
Prior to his COO role at BBH, Rudd was MD of the agency for 6 years when the agency won many agency of the year awards from Campaign, Marketing, Creativity, the Webbys and British Arrows. BBH London is frequently one of the most awarded agencies at Cannes as well as topping Campaign's new business league. As COO, Rudd has been working alongside CEO Ben Fennell and ECD Nick Gill in developing the business beyond its core advertising business with the creation of satellite businesses such as BBH Sport and Black Sheep Productions.
Rudd actually started his career in advertising as an O&M graduate working on campaigns for Guinness and Shell before leaving in 1992 to join Simons Palmer.
Rudd commented: “O&M is where I learnt so much about advertising and it is an honour to be coming back as CEO. It was always going to need to be something special to make me want to leave BBH, but the opportunity to take O&M to the heights it deserves was too great to turn down. I'm looking forward to working with Annette and the wider team at O&M to drive the business forward."
King commented: “Charlie is one of those characters who when you first meet him, you know everything is going to be great. His passion for creativity and strategy shines through in heaps, but his humour and wit keep you smiling and wanting more. He’s a great addition to the team”.