Laura Rowan Joins Wieden+Kennedy New York as Chief Strategy Officer

Wieden+Kennedy has announced that Laura Rowan will join the nearly 500-person New York office as chief strategy officer. Laura officially starts in the position this week. Joining W+K from Anomaly New York, where she most recently served as managing partner, head of strategy, Laura will lead a department of brand, comms, social and data strategists to help drive growth across Wieden New York’s portfolio of partners. As chief strategy officer in New York, Laura will build on the office’s legacy of igniting cultural conversation for iconic brands, while helping modern businesses build the kind of strategic foundations that lead to breakthrough work. 

“Wieden+Kennedy isn’t just an ad agency, it’s a platform that carefully nurtures a culture of creativity,” Laura said. “The kind of creativity that solves problems and pushes culture forward. It’s the place where people and brands meet their full potential. I’m truly honoured to join Brandon and Marques and to become a part of the magic that the very talented and kind people of W+K have built together.”

Prior to Wieden, Laura spent more than a decade of her 20-year career at Anomaly, in both New York and Toronto, where she led the agency’s total strategy approach to help unlock the broadest definition of creativity for modern marketers. Her category experience is diverse, and her strategic thought leadership has led to some of the most recognizable, award-winning creative storytelling for brands like AB InBev, Google, YouTube, Ally Financial, Hershey and Panera. While at Anomaly, Laura also co-chaired the agency’s LGBTQ+ champions group, which focused on driving inclusiveness and visibility of the community within the industry, and in the work. Before joining Anomaly, Laura was a VP, global strategy director at Grey working across P&G globally, where she helped Febreze become P&G's fastest-growing billion-dollar brand. Her work has been recognised by Cannes Lions, APG, One Show, D&AD, Effies, Jay Chiat, Emmy’s and Clios, and her strategic storytelling was compared to Shakespeare in Harvard Business Review. Laura went to undergrad at Penn State and has her Masters in Communication with a focus on research and communication theory from Boston University. She also spent time studying and working in London, and as a strategy instructor at Miami Ad School.