Chairman , TBWAWorldwide
Jean-Marie Dru, a graduate of HEC Business School, began his career in advertising in 1971 with Dupuy Compton (now Saatchi & Saatchi) and quickly rose to the position of Executive Creative Director.
Dru joined Young & Rubicam in Paris in 1977 as Managing Director, before becoming the agency’s Chief Executive Officer in 1979. He co-founded BDDP, which was acquired by Omnicom and merged with TBWA in 1998. Dru became President International of TBWAWorldwide in 1998 and was appointed President and CEO Worldwide in January 2001, a position he held until moved to his current role of Chairman in January 2008.
Dru has published six books on advertising and marketing: “Jet Lag” (PowerHouse Books, 2012), “How Disruption Brought Order” (Palgrave, 2007), “Beyond Disruption” (John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2002), “Disruption” (John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1996), “Le Saut Créatif” (Lattès, 1984) and “The Ways To New. 15 Paths To Disruptive Innovation” (John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2015).
Dru served as President of the Film Jury of the Cannes Advertising Festival in 1982 and again in 1998. He has also been the Jury President of the first-ever Cannes Creative Effectiveness Award in 2011.
Dru is a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, officially referred to as Sciences Po Paris. He became Chairman of the French Academy of Medicine Foundation in 2013 and Chairman of UNICEF France in June 2015.
Jean-Marie Dru was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur for his long-lasting contribution to the advertising industry and to the business world.
