Bruce Crawford, the long-time leader of Omnicom Group died at his home in New York City on December 28 at the age of 96, the company confirmed. 

He began his career in advertising in the mid-1950's before joining BBDO Worldwide in 1963, where he rose to president and CEO.  

Crawford was Omnicom’s President and CEO from 1989 until 1995, when he became Chairman and CEO. He was succeeded by John Wren in the CEO role in 1997 and remained chairman until stepping down in 2018, when Wren succeeded him in that role as well.   

Outside of his advertising career, Crawford was a well-known and widely regarded patron of the arts. For decades he was deeply involved with the Metropolitan Opera, as a donor, executive, and opera buff. He served as an advisory director starting in 1976 and managing director from 1977 until 2008. He suspended his career at Omnicom from 1985 to 1989 to serve full time at the Met as general manager, the organization’s primary operations executive. He’s credited with turning around the organization's finances.  

Later he served as chairman of Lincoln Center, the larger cultural complex that houses the Met. As the New York Times put it in an obituary published January 7, Crawford was “virtually the public face of the nation’s premier performing arts institution, with venues for opera, ballet, music, theater and more on a 16-acre campus on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.” 

By the time he stepped down in 2005, the Times reported, Crawford had overseen the opening of a new jazz space, the Frederick P. Rose Hall and revitalized the Mostly Mozart Festival. He’s also credited with expanding the American Songbook series and for launching a fund-raising campaign that was part of a major redevelopment plan for the institution.