A 10-year veteran of Grey, Houston has served since 2016 as global president and becomes the fifth person to hold the CEO position since Grey was founded in 1917.
James R Heekin, who has led the company as chairman and CEO of Grey Group since 2007, will remain executive chairman of Grey Group. He will continue to work closely with Houston, global management, and clients to ensure a smooth transition and Grey's ongoing success in the years ahead.
"As global president, I've travelled the world and have been inspired by the depth and breadth of talent and creativity across the Grey network," says Houston. "I'm humbled to work with such brilliant creative minds and honoured to become CEO of this great agency brand at the height of its momentum, with vast potential ahead."
Grey's record performance
Thus far, Grey has won the global Revlon account and the United States accounts of Walgreens and Applebee's. The agency's creative reputation includes the win of over 270
Cannes Lions in the past three years. In recent years, Grey has been named Adweek's
Global Agency of the Year twice, Advertising Age's
Agency of the Year, and Campaign's
Global Network of the Year.
Michael Houston
Houston joined Grey New York, the global network's flagship headquarters office, in 2007 as executive vice president, director of marketing, to lead Grey's business development and brand marketing efforts.
He was promoted to global chief marketing officer of Grey worldwide in 2010 in recognition of Grey unprecedented growth. Appointed to the new position of managing director of Grey New York in 2011, Houston took on the role of chief operating officer of the 1 000-person strong office in 2012. He was named in Crain's New York Business '40 Under 40' list in 2012.
In 2013, Houston was promoted to CEO of Grey North America, overseeing the New York, San Francisco, and Canadian offices as well as Grey Activation and PR and Wing – the multicultural marketing communications agency.
Under his leadership, Grey has won blue-chip clients as Gillette, Volvo, Nestlé, Hasbro, Papa John's, Kellogg's, and Marriott. He took on an expanded worldwide leadership role in 2016 when he became global president of Grey.
James R Heekin
Heekin became chairman and chief executive officer of Grey Group in January 2007 – after leading Grey since 2005. He succeeded Edward H Meyer, whose career included more than three decades as CEO.
Under Heekin's leadership, Grey has introduced a new global strategic model for developing creative ideas across platforms; enhanced its total communications offering with acquisitions in every region; achieved a successful decade in its history adding over $2-billion in new business billings from blue-chip clients, and has become a global creative powerhouse.
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