Gillian Graham, a fixture at ad industry events and a strong advocate for Canadian agencies on the world stage, is preparing to leave the helm of the Institute of Communication Agencies after nearly a decade as its CEO.
The ICA announced Graham’s departure Tuesday. She will officially leave the organization July 15.
While she’s on record saying she is considering “a number of opportunities,” Graham told Marketing she’s strongly considering launching a business of her own after a long-deserved summer sabbatical.
“I’ve had my own business in the past, and I love being an entrepreneur,” Graham said. “So I suspect I’ll be drawn back into being an entrepreneur… I’ve got a couple of concepts for businesses that are really exciting.”
She added, with a laugh, “and no, I’m not going to tell you what they are… But honestly, I’m open to whatever the universe sends forth.”
Graham joined the ICA in 2007 after running The Graham Group for six years. It was a time when the ICA had seen its membership revenues decline after a few high-profile agency departures. Companies were seeing the ICA as more of a social group than one of business development and were hesitant to invest. Back then, membership fees were the ICA’s largest source of revenue.
Graham has been credited with transforming the group into one that agencies wanted to reinvest in. Membership is now back up (Graham said the ICA’s 80-100 members represent 70% of the agency spending in Canada), and two of the biggest holdouts — Publicis and MacLaren McCann — not only rejoined, but contributed board chairmen from their executive ranks.
Doug Turney, former MacLaren CEO and ICA board chair, said back in 2011 the ICA’s previous iteration had become “redundant… A lot of the things they provided we already did in-house. Since then, with Gillian taking the helm, they’ve changed virtually everything, top to bottom.”
Graham also helped develop a number of high-profile events for the ICA to bolster events as a revenue source. The ICA said attendance at it’s annual FFWD: Advertising and Marketing Week conference reached 7,000 this year, and its Future Flash retreat for agency executives is entering its tenth year.
“We started thinking about [FFWD] in 2008 just before the economy had such tremendous trouble,” Graham said. “We were crazy enough to bring in [Virgin founder] Richard Branson. What an insane thing to do in our first year and the very week the economy began falling down the toilet. It was an extraordinary accomplishment. I’m very proud of the fact that we started it and brought it along to be a core component of our industry offering.”
In the months leading up to her departure, Graham is not reducing her involvement in planning the events she’s helped develop.
“It’s shoulder to the wheel. Business as usual. That’s my style. We’ve got Future Flash as a huge focus, and as my last one, it better be the best one yet.”
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Penny Stevens, president Media Experts and chair of the 2016 ICA board of directors, said working with Graham has been “terrific.”
“She’s been a consummate diplomat in my short tenure as chair,” Stevens said. “She’s had to deal with a lot of A-type personalities on this board. And it’s a pretty active board. She’ll be missed. She’s left a good imprint.”
Stevens has struck a team of board members to find Graham’s replacement. The committee – which includes BBDO’s Paul Reilly, John St.’s Arthur Fleischmann and Marshall Fenn’s Jim Kabrajee – has held an initial meeting and plans to hire a head hunter to begin what Steven’s called a “broad search.”
“Do I think the role will dramatically change? No, I don’t think so,” Stevens told Marketing. That said, she predicted the CEO’s job description would broaden to include more advocacy for the members. “The mandate of the association itself is to support and give strength and voice to advertising agencies. Agencies are at a critical time. To that point, we’ve also struck a committee to examine the future visioning of the ICA and will take that into consideration.”
