The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) this morning began informing its member that Scott McDonald is retiring as CEO of the 90-year-old advertising trade association and that an executive search has begun to find a successor.

McDonald, who became ARF CEO in 2017 after a long and distinguished career as a top industry media researcher -- most notably at top publishing companies such as Conde Nast and Time Inc. -- will retire early next year after a new CEO is appointed.

CBIZ Talent Solutions, which handled the 2017 search that led to McDonald's appointment, will once again handle the new search, which official launches by late June.

The search follows the launch of another high-level ad trade association search, the one for Association of National Advertisers' CEO Bob Liodice, who will retire at year-end. The ANA has not disclosed the executive recruiting firm handling that process, but like the ARF's search, it will be looking for the "next generation" of ad industry leadership.

McDonald was paid $550,896 in total compensation in 2024, the last year public data is available for the ARF's nonprofit Internal Revenue Service filing.

Liodice received $1,560,806 in total compensation in 2024, the last year public IRS filing data is available for the ANA.

During McDonald's helm, the ARF acquired two other trade associations -- the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and the Marketing Science Institute (MSI -- and expanded into its own primary media research product offering: the DASH syndicated media universe study, which is by many top media measurement suppliers to calibrate their media universe estimates.

"My retirement plans reflect my judgment that generational change is healthy for any organization, especially one that witnesses so much technological and structural transformation," McDonald said in a statement reflecting the timing of the move, adding, "It was 90 years ago that the ARF was founded by some smart and far-sighted people, and it has retained its commitment to objectivity, scientific rigor and empirical evidence throughout its history."

Interestingly, the ARF was originally founded in 1936 as a joint-venture of the ANA and the American Association of Advertising Agencies to be the voice of industry research representing a demand-side perspective, but over its most recent history has become increasingly representative of both big media suppliers, as well as syndicated advertising, marketing and media research suppliers that often set the bases for the value of media, as well as the measured returns on advertising and media investments.

That evolution began prior to McDonald's helm.