NEW YORK: Kraft Foods' beverages, desserts and post division former president Ann Fudge has replaced WPP Group's Young & Rubicam and Y&R Advertising chairman-CEO Michael Dolan who has resigned. Dolan was quoted as saying that the the resignation was a right move at the right time for him as well as for the company.

An adage report states that Fudge worked with numerous agencies, including WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide during her stint at Kraft. She left that job in February 2001; this is her first chairman and chief executive post. Prior to Kraft, she spent nine years at General Mills, where she started as a marketing assistant and rose to the marketing director level. She is supposed to have good people management skills.

The report states that the Y& R staff was informed about this development by e-mail. In the e-mail, Dolan outlined the company's accomplishments since 1996, when he joined as vice chairman and chief financial officer. He became chairman-CEO of Young & Rubicam in 2001 and later that year assumed responsibility for Y&R Advertising.

Dolan was quoted as writing that the team has accomplished a great deal during the last seven years. The achievements, he noted, included Young & Rubicam's initial public offering, its merger with WPP Group and the creation of the Y&R/Wunderman alliance.

The company's recent account wins of ChevronTexaco (with $95 million in billings) and Burger King Corp. ($340 million) were examples of "Y&R's integrated approach", as per Dolan's e-mail.

Fudge was quoted as saying that she will be looking at [the agency business] with a different lens.

The adage report also states that Fudge's background in packaged goods, as well as her knowledge and understanding of how clients think and approach marketing problems, appealed to WPP's management as they considered potential successors to Dolan, executives familiar the search said.