
Steve Harding (above), currently CEO of OgilvyAction in the EMEA region, will assume the role of Global CEO of OgilvyAction, with immediate effect.
Steve, a British national based in London, has been part of the five-person management collective which has run the business over the past seven months.
Miles Young, Ogilvy’s worldwide CEO, says: “Steve has been the convenor of our management team, and it is natural that he should step up. He is truly an activation professional. He has selling in his bones, and a real vision for how the business creates strategic advantage by affecting behaviours. Our ambition for the business, which is showing high growth, is very substantial. Steve and his superb team are tasked with positioning to lead this discipline as a global ‘must-have’ for clients old and new.”
Harding joined Ogilvy in May 2005 when he merged his activation company Tarantula with Ogilvy & Mather’s 141 Worldwide, becoming the CEO of the merged operations. In 2007, when 141 Worldwide was relaunched as OgilvyAction, Harding was named CEO, OgilvyAction EAME. At the end of 2009 when the OgilvyAction Global Leadership Team was established, he became an inaugural member.
Steve comments: “I’m very excited about taking on the OgilvyAction Global role. The activation marketplace is clearly one of the most dynamic marketing disciplines today. I know with the help of our leadership team we will achieve our mission of becoming the world’s best brand activation network.”
OgilvyAction’s management team that Steve will lead also includes Sheila Hartnett, CEO, North America; John Goodman, President, Asia Pacific; Regis Duarte, General Manager, Latina; and David Fox, Worldwide Managing Director, BAT.
Harding started his career at Smith and Nephew, followed by Carlsberg Tetley both in sales and marketing roles. He then moved to the agency side in the early 1990’s joining a sales promotion start-up called USP. Steve then became MD of the newly formed CSP, which he left in 1998 to start up Tarantula Activation Communications, where he oversaw the development of the company in the UK as well as its international presence in Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Japan.