Demonstrating its continuing commitment to building a best-in-class planning capability, Ogilvy & Mather announced four new senior hires to its New York office: Tim Maleeny joins as Head of Account Planning, Marta La Rock as Worldwide Planning Director on Kraft/GSK, Dan Ng as Worldwide Planning Director on American Express/Motorola, and Magnus Blair as Planning Director on Dove.

"Ogilvy has always had a strong research and planning culture. David Ogilvy was a researcher for George Gallup before he became a copywriter, and he established a tradition of insight in the service of creative," commented Colin Mitchell. "This is a very exciting time in Planning. The discipline turned forty last year and a lot is changing. There is an explosion in data and a shift from 'top down' marketing to 'dialogue' marketing that Planning finds itself at the center of."

These hires follow an announcement in June by Worldwide CEO Miles Young to elevate planning within the agency by appointing global leaders for the discipline. Colin Mitchell and John Shaw became joint Worldwide Planning Directors, and Tim Broadbent became Global Effectiveness Director. "My experience is that a vibrant Planning culture is vital to the success of the agency. Clients demand it. It drives new business, growth in existing business, better creative work and client satisfaction. We aim to build the best Planning department in the world," said Young.

Planning at Ogilvy now fits within a broader range of strategic services that includes Analytics, and Marketing Consulting. It also includes specialist sub-disciplines such as Digital Strategy and Ethnographic Research and Experience Planning.

As Head of Account Planning for Ogilvy & Mather New York, Tim Maleeny will oversee a team of forty planners. He comes to Ogilvy from Hal Riney in San Francisco, where he was Head of Planning. Tim previously worked at Cole & Weber and started his career over twenty years ago at Y&R in New York. He is also an award-winning author of mystery novels.

Marta La Rock becomes Worldwide Planning Director for Kraft and GSK. After earning a degree in Mathematics Education, Marta started her career in advertising at Avert Free & Ginsberg and DDB and then moved to Y&R where she stayed for eleven years, rising to lead the New York Planning department. She has also been Head of Planning for Publicis and D'arcy, and latterly learned the world of retail activation Director of Strategy at TraceyLocke.

Dan Ng, Worldwide Planning Director on American Express and Motorola comes most recently from DDB London where he was Head of Planning, managing a department of thirty Planners and working on clients including Philips, Volkswagen, Hasbro and ExxonMobil. An expert in digital marketing, Dan previously served as Head of Planning for Tribal DDB. He has also worked for Crispin Porter + Bogusky Miami and Chiat Day in New York.

Magnus Blair, Planning Director on Dove, started his career at AMV-BBDO in London and then moved to Fallon in Minneapolis, where he led Planning on Citi's "Live Richly" campaign. He then moved to Leo Burnett in New York to work on Samsung, and most recently has been working at Anomaly on Nestea, Coke and Umbro.

Colin Mitchell noted, "Clearly, these individuals are exceptional talents, several have run their own departments before, and they could have chosen to work pretty much anywhere. I'm honored that they decided to join us. I think it says something about the vision for Planning at Ogilvy."

About Ogilvy North America

Ogilvy North America, is the largest unit of Ogilvy & Mather, a WPP company (Nasdaq: WPPGY). It has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Durham, Minneapolis, Denver, and throughout Canada. Ogilvy North America brings together all the capabilities of the Ogilvy network to provide integrated marketing solutions to the agency's clients. It encompasses Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyEntertainment, OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive, Neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy Healthworld, Ogilvy Public Relations, OgilvyAction, and RedWorks.