• by August 12, 2003

MPG (Media Planning Group), Havas' media agency, has announced the appointment of former Ambassador CARL SPIELVOGEL to the MPG USA Advisory Board. Spielvogel -- an advertising pioneer, who in 1979 founded Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide -- will assist MPG in formulating strategic and tactical decisions for the development and growth of the company and its clients. Ambassador Spielvogel began his career as a journalist with The New York Times and was its first daily advertising columnist. After 10 years at the Times, in 1960, he joined McCann-Erickson. There, he became EVP and general manager, before joining the Interpublic Group in 1972, where he eventually rose to become Chairman of the Executive Committee and Vice-chairman. He left Interpublic in 1979 to form Backer & Spielvogel. The agency - which he headed as Chairman and CEO - later merged with Bates Worldwide Inc.. After leaving the advertising industry, Spielvogel founded the United Auto Group, Inc., which he built into a chain of 65 auto dealers, with sales of $4 billion. United Auto was one of the first auto dealerships groups to be publicly owned. Spielvogel's government service began in 1995, when he was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Government Board of Broadcasting. In 2000, he was named U.S. Ambassador to the Slovak Republic, and served in Bratislava, the Capital of the Slovak Republic. At a municipal level in NYC, he also served as Chairman of the Mayor's Committee in the Public Interest, and later Chairman of the Mayor's Committee for Public-Private Partnership. As well, he is the former Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Financial Times .