As president of North America, Rich Stoddart is at the helm of Leo Burnett Worldwide’s highest priority region, spanning 2,000 employees across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Rich is charged with driving growth and innovation across Leo Burnett and sister marketing services agency Arc to enable the delivery of seamless, cross-platform ideas to better meet evolving client needs. The recent alignment of both agencies under his leadership brings the complementary brand and transactional strengths of Burnett and Arc together to help clients simultaneously build a quality reputation for the long haul and generate sales for the immediate present.
Before taking on this role in January of 2007, Rich served as president of Leo Burnett USA (Chicago) for two years, helping return the flagship agency to growth, strengthen its leadership team and deliver unparalleled ROI for clients such as Allstate, Kellogg and McDonald’s, winning more EFFIE Awards for effective advertising than any other U.S. agency six years running.
Recruited from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in American Government, Rich began his career at Burnett in 1985 working on the Hewlett-Packard account as a media buyer/planner. He then transitioned to account management, rising through the ranks over the next ten years to become account director.
Rich joined sister Publicis Groupe agency Fallon in 1995 as a member of its Minneapolis management team at the time when the agency earned Agency of the Year honors from both Adweek and Advertising Age.
Six years later in 2001, Rich took his creative problem-solving skills to the client side of the business, joining Ford Motor Company as manager of marketing communications. There he oversaw such high-profile initiatives as Ford’s “Built for the Road Ahead” campaign, major expansion of its digital and CRM marketing efforts and brand integration partnerships with "American Idol," "24" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” He also managed Ford’s agency relationships and monitored an annual budget of upwards of $800 million. While at Ford, Rich was a recipient of the prestigious American Advertising Federation "Hall of Fame" Achievement Award, recognizing ad professionals under the age of 40 who have demonstrated outstanding career achievements.
