Odette van der Haar: From referee to player
The advertising world is abuzz at the prospect of the industry association’s highly respected former head, Odette van der Haar, taking the reins as the Johannesburg CEO of J Walter Thompson
Advertising’s representative body, the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA), will be hard-pressed to find a replacement for outgoing CEO Odette van der Haar, who has joined J Walter Thompson (JWT) as Johannesburg CEO. Among the agency’s clients are blue-chip brands including Unilever, Shell, Ford, Kellogg’s and Nestlé. The general consensus in the sector is that Van der Haar has helped reposition advertising as a serious business discipline, where effective work yields measurable sales results. Speaking to the FM, she says she leaves the ACA "future-proofed, stable and financially secure, with increased membership and industry relevance as well as strong stakeholder relationships". Van der Haar has been a driving force behind transformation in the ad sector, which has long been criticised for being slow to change. She says among her accomplishments has been "enabling accelerated transformation by driving the industry’s transformation agenda and goals, which saw the MAC ...
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