Arnold Worldwide Hires Global President to Further Advance Its Global Growth Strategy

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Aug 6, 2012) -  Arnold Worldwide announced today that Robert LePlae will join the creative communications agency as its Global President reporting to Andrew Benett, Arnold's Global CEO and Chief Strategy Officer of Havas Creative. LePlae is being brought in to provide additional management support for Arnold's rapid growth, as well as focus on further advancing Arnold's growth strategy and global footprint. He will be relocating from the West Coast and will divide his time between the Boston and New York offices. He will start on September 15th.

"We have a fantastic leadership team in place that is working at full capacity to drive our clients' businesses forward. The addition of Robert will bring increased focus and support for our growth initiatives as well as help maximize and advance our international expansion. He's an extremely well respected, accomplished agency leader who brings global expertise and a wealth of management experience to our global network," said Benett.

LePlae joins in this newly created position at a time of stellar success for Arnold Worldwide. In the last 2 1/2 years Arnold has grown 70%, due in part to steady growth among its global businesses, including Dell, The Hershey Company, Jack Daniel's, Unilever and Volvo. In addition, Arnold has made strong gains toward realizing its ambitions of becoming the world's leading global micronetwork by expanding its offering in key markets. Arnold has also experienced one of the best new business track records in the industry, winning over 20 accounts, most recently, American Eagle Outfitters, Kohler Co. and University of Phoenix.

"Arnold has experienced amazing growth over the last two years in addition to creating a first-class digital capability and opening in new markets, such as Amsterdam, London, Shanghai and Sydney. There's a great team in place that Andrew has led brilliantly. Adding Robert will further strengthen the leadership in preparation for the next phase of growth," added David Jones, Global CEO of Havas.

LePlae most recently served as North American President at McCann Erickson, where he was also the Regional Director for McCann Worldgroup's independent agency holdings, comprised of 10 companies, and served as the global lead of the "Culture of Innovation" transformation team. Prior to that he spent 11 years at TBWA/Chiat Day, starting there as managing director and working his way up the ranks to North American President. LePlae relocated to Tokyo in 1999 to create a unique joint venture for Nissan with Japanese advertising giant Hakuhodo. As Founding CEO, he constructed a global organization and drove the marketing vision for the Nissan and Infiniti brands worldwide. LePlae is considered a cornerstone in the emergence of TBWA/Worldwide as a top creative agency network with a long list of successes, including driving extraordinary growth from 2002-2005 and being selected as Ad Age's Global Agency Network of the Year (2004), Adweek's Agency of the Year (2004) and Adweek's Global Network of the Year (2006 & 2008).

"It's a perfect time to be joining the Arnold team. They have a great group of leaders who have done a wonderful job of delivering stellar results for a superior list of existing clients. With the recent addition of several high profile new clients there is tremendous momentum and opportunity to continue to grow the agency," said LePlae.

About Arnold Worldwide
Arnold is a global communications company and one of the top five most creatively awarded agencies of the past decade. We are proud to represent a diverse portfolio of clients, including Aetna, American Eagle Outfitters, Amtrak, Carnival Cruise Lines, CVS/pharmacy, Dell, Fidelity Investments, The Hershey Company, Huntington Bank, Jack Daniel's, Kohler, McDonald's, New Balance, Ocean Spray, Panasonic, Pearle Vision, Progressive, Sanofi-Aventis, Titleist, truth®, Tyson Foods, Unilever, Vertex, Volvo and many other great brands. Arnold delivers services across all communication touch points -- advertising, digital, promotions, direct, design, branded content -- and is part of Havas Worldwide with offices in Amsterdam, Boston, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Moscow, New York, Prague, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto and Washington DC. www.arnoldworldwide.com