Renetta McCann
American advertising executive
Renetta McCann (born December 8, 1956) is an American advertising and public relations executive who previously served as chief executive officer of Starcom Mediavest Group in North America.
Early life and education
McCann was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 8, 1956, and was raised by her mother, a school teacher, and her grandmother. She graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in communications in 1978. Originally interested in political science and a legal career, McCann was inspired by professors such as David Zarefsky to pursue public relations.
In 2009, McCann returned to Northwestern and earned her master's degree in learning and organizational change.
Career
McCann joined Leo Burnett Worldwide, a Chicago-based advertising agency, after graduating from college in 1978. Within a year of starting, McCann became the first African-American media supervisor at the agency. In 1988, she was named vice president, and became a media director in 1989. In 1998, McCann became managing director of Starcom Mediavest Group in North America; after a merger between Leo Burnett and D'Arcy, McCann became CEO in 2000.
During her tenure as CEO, Starcom's client billings exceeded $26 billion and the company grew to over 6,000 employees.
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This entry incorporates text from “Renetta McCann” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.