Cole & Weber United Appoints Elizabeth Rowny Managing Director, Partner

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Sep 19, 2013) - Mike Doherty, President of creative agency Cole & Weber United (CWU), part of WPP's United Network, announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Rowny as Managing Director, Partner of the Seattle-based shop.

Reporting directly to Doherty, Rowny will be responsible for partnering with CWU's clients to create a business vision and strategies that achieve their goals. As an agency partner, she will become a key member of the agency's leadership and business development team, championing the creation of great work and ensuring the agency builds meaningful partnerships. Rowny will help drive growth strategies for all CWU clients including Washington's Lottery, International Olympic Committee (IOC), Ste. Michele Wine Estates, Trident Seafood and SightLife, among others.

"We are thrilled to have Elizabeth on board," said Doherty. "At CWU, account management is about business leadership and helping clients use creativity to drive their businesses forward. Elizabeth's unique background -- from consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers to her senior strategy and account management roles at leading creative shops like TBWA\C\D -- makes her a strong asset to our team."

Prior to joining CWU, Rowny was Worldwide Managing Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, where she was the global network leader for two of GSK's largest consumer brands, Nicorette/Niquitin and Aquafresh. While there, Rowny helped win the global Aquafresh business and led the brand's successful global transition, including development and implementation of its first global brand platform. She also led a turnaround of the global Nicorette/Niquitin brands, making the category the most profitable across all of GSK Consumer Healthcare.

Before that, Rowny was Director of Client Service at SapientNitro in New York, and part of Nitro's founding team of executives who grew the agency to over 70 employees as the agency was bought by Sapient. While there she led $15M in revenue for ConAgra's Healthy Choice, Hunt's and Hebrew National brands. She helped grow Healthy Choice from #5 market share back to #2, returning it to billion dollar brand status. Earlier in her career, Rowny worked at prestigious agencies such as TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, Ogilvy & Mather and Fitzgerald+CO, and she was also a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers for major Corporations such as Reuters, British Petroleum, Mercedes Benz, Nestle, Unilever and Bank of America.

"My decision to join CWU had to do with its amazing team," said Rowny. "We have likeminded ambitions for the kind of work we all want to do to build our clients' businesses. There's not a jaded soul in the building -- this smart group loves their clients and loves this business, and it shows. CWU has been a stalwart of the Seattle market for decades now, and yet it has remained restless in the best possible sense. It's an interesting moment in their history, as Seattle continues to morph and clients have accepted that big, business-transforming ideas can come from anywhere. I'm truly excited to be inspired by the kind of energy happening in the city right now."

Rowny begins her new post on October 1. After living in New York City for seven years, she's looking forward to driving a car again (her three-year-old twins think all cars are taxis) and immersing herself in Seattle's start-up culture -- from biotech to fashion to the stellar food and wine scene.

About Cole & Weber United
Cole & Weber United is a creativity company known for creating innovative campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to solve business problems. Founded in 1931, the Seattle-based agency has established a reputation for producing insightful, creatively disruptive, award-winning work. Cole & Weber United is a member of WPP's Voluntarily United Group of Creative Agencies, a global network of communications entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.cwunited.com.