Carla Hendra, Ogilvy

Executive Partner and Chief Executive

Carla Hendra Biography

Carla Hendra is the Global Chairman of OgilvyRED, Ogilvy & Mather's strategic consulting and innovation group which provides advisory services in brand and marketing strategy as well as marketing transformation and digital innovation consulting. She has deep experience in the Financial Services, Technology, Travel & Transportation, and Healthcare categories.

Prior to being named Chairman of OgilvyRED, Carla was Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy North America from 2005-2010 and President of OgilvyOne from 1998-2010. In these roles, she managed the Ogilvy network’s largest operations and key business units: Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyOne, OgilvyAction, OgilvyPR, OgilvyHealthworld and RedWorks. She was also a founder of OgilvyEntertainment, the innovative branded entertainment group in 2007, and was responsible for acquisitions in Loyalty Marketing and Sales Enablement (The Lacek Group and Leopard). Carla has been a primary driver of digital innovation throughout her 18 years at Ogilvy. She created the agency’s strategic consulting group in North America in 1998. Her focus on digital innovation resulted in OgilvyInteractive being named one of the world’s leading digital marketing agencies in North America by Forrester Research in 2007 and 2009, based on pioneering work on behalf of clients such as IBM, American Express, TDAmeritrade, Allstate and Time Warner Cable. Carla served as the first-ever female jury chair of the Cannes Advertising Festival when she presided over the 2001 Cyber Lions. She was selected one of Working Mother magazine’s “Advertising Working Mothers of the Year” in 2004, and named Advertising Woman of the Year by AWNY in 2005. Carla received the YWCA’s “W” award, given for eliminating racism and empowering women, in 2008. She has served terms on both the 4A’s Board of Directors and the DMA Board of Directors.

Carla has served as a Board Director of Brown Shoe Company since 2005, a $2.5Bn global footwear wholesaler and retailer. She was also a Board Director at Unica, a leader in Enterprise Marketing Management technology, prior to their acquisition by IBM in 2010. Carla is currently a Board Advisor to FILTER, a Digital Content services firm.