Carla Serrano

Chief Executive Officer, Publicis New York
Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Groupe

Bio:

Carla Serrano is Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Groupe and Chief Executive Officer of Publicis New York. In her current role, she draws on her background in strategy, integration and leadership to incorporate transformative thinking in all aspects of Groupe agency operations and across all four solution hubs.

After graduating from McGill University with a BA in English and Psychology, Carla started her advertising career at Chiat/Day Toronto at a time when account planning was an emerging discipline in North America. She cut her teeth in the business working on iconic brands like Apple and Nissan. After four years, Carla moved to BBDO to work on PepsiCo brands. It was through the launch of Aquafina, one of the first mass bottled water brands in the US that she discovered her love for NY.

In 1999, Carla joined TBWA Chiat/Day in NY as a senior planner working on global accounts like Cadbury and Absolut. This was also the time of the dotcom brand boom. For Carla, brands like Orbitz and Cosmos served to lay the foundation for her interest in defining strategies for early tech brands as well digitally-led experiences. At TBWA, Carla helped socialize and optimize their two network keystone disciplines: Disruption and Connection Planning.

After four years, Carla joined Berlin Cameron & Partners as planning director. There, she pitched and won many accounts like Samsung, Coca-Cola, Moet-Hennessy & Heineken. The agency was recognized as Adweek's Agency of the year in 2004 after incredible new business wins and became known for culturally-igniting strategy and work.
 Carla spent five years at Berlin Cameron rising to President of the NY office.
In 2009, Carla returned to TBWA Chiat/Day as Chief Strategy Officer. While there, she helped merge the classic skills of account planning, media arts and digital strategy to develop a truly integrated approach to help clients' businesses. She also pitched and won global accounts such as Kraft and GSK.

Her growing interest in integrated business solutions led her to join Naked Communications, a strategic consultancy that specialized in consumer engagement and renegade creative processes. Carla reveled in the diverse types of projects Naked offered. While there, she helped Playboy reinvent their business, NBC Universal develop social content influencer process and launched new brands for Capital One, Mondelez and Novartis. After two years, Carla was promoted to CEO of North America.

Today, her experiences continue to fuel her passion for seamless strategic innovation in service of transformative business solutions.