Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or Micki Leventhal 312.344.7383
For Immediate Release
6 January 2005
Chicago, IL--Chicago native Renetta McCann (49), chief executive officer of Starcom Media VestGroup (SMG), has been elected to Columbia College Chicago's board of trustees, announced Dr. Warrick L. Carter. In October 2005 McCann was named CEO of SMG--the world's largest media planning and buying agency. She is credited with developing SMG into one of the advertising industries top strategic planning "think tanks."
McCann began her career in advertising in 1978 when she joined Chicago's Leo Burnett agency as a client service trainee. A year later she rose through the ranks to become Burnett's first African American media supervisor. She then became the first African American vice president in 1988, and, in 1989, the first to be named media director. As media director, McCann handled a variety of clients including Sony, Keebler, McDonald's and Dewar's.
In 1995 she was named senior vice president and, in 1998, she was promoted to managing director and was part of the management team that led the launch of Starcom as an independent media company.
As Leo Burnett merged with D'Arcy, she became CEO of SMG/The Americas. In this position McCann was responsible for the operation of the largest region encompassing four media brands: Starcom, MediaVest, GM Planworks and StarLink, which included markets the United States, Canada and Latin America.
She is the recipient of numerous Effies and Cannes Lions awards. In 2002 she was named "Corporate Executive of the Year" by Black Enterprise magazine as well as being selected by Ebony as one of the "57 Most Intriguing Blacks." She has been recognized by Advertising Age, Business Week and Chicago magazine; in 2003 Essence named her as one of "50 Women Who are Changing the World."
McCann attended Holy Cross Elementary School, St. Phillip Neri School and graduated from Aquinas Dominican High School in 1974. She attended Northwestern University and earned a bachelor's degree in speech in 1978. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.