MAM
Laura Maness steps down as global chief of Grey after three-year stint
NEW YORK: Laura Maness is stepping down as global chief executive of Grey, the 105-year-old advertising agency, after more than three years at the helm. In a LinkedIn post published on Thursday, Maness—the first woman to lead the storied shop—said she would be “passing the baton” to close colleagues whilst embarking on what she described as a “bold new chapter.” She offered no details about her next move.
The departure marks the end of a brief but eventful tenure for Maness, who became only the sixth global chief in Grey’s history when she took the reins in September 2022. During her time leading the WPP-owned agency, Grey operated as a standalone brand within the Ogilvy network, a structure designed to preserve its independence whilst leveraging the broader group’s resources.
Maness joined Grey from Havas, where she spent nearly a decade, most recently as chief executive of the group’s north American flagship. At Havas she drove what the industry regarded as a remarkable turnaround, earning the agency accolades including Digiday’s most innovative culture and Ad Age’s best places to work. She also steered Havas to become the first major network agency in America to achieve B Corp certification.
Before Havas, Maness spent six years at Designkitchen, an independent Chicago shop that was acquired by WPP in 2008 following growth she helped orchestrate. Her career spans stints at FCB Global, Propane and Wunderman, with early roles at Black Dog Interactive and Giant Step during the dot-com era.
Beyond her executive roles, Maness serves on several boards, including Tory Burch Foundation, Alembic Technologies, B Lab and the 4A’s, where she is vice chair. She co-chairs 50/50 Women on Boards and is a founding member of Chief, the invitation-only network for women leaders.
Grey, founded in 1917, markets itself on creating “famously effective” ideas for brands. The agency has been named to Newsweek’s top 100 global most loved workplaces and America’s greatest workplaces for women, with women representing 50 per cent of its executive leadership.
Maness’s cryptic sign-off—”As for what’s next? More to come”—has left industry observers guessing about her future plans.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
