• Ad Age, Monday, January 8, 2007 11:15 AM

John Wren, CEO of Omnicom Group, has been named Ad Age's "Agency Executive of the Year." One reason: he can make "a turbulent industry seem downright calm," showing in 2006 that the holding-company model can work for more than just getting agency owners pay-outs.

Omnicom's stock price is way up; it has successfully retained clients like Dell and Visa. The trade magazine singles out Wren's continued strides in "preparing a company that began 20 years ago as the merger of three elite ad agencies for what is essentially a non-advertising future."

The company already gets more than 40% of its revenue from marketing services--and that share is apt to grow as consumer media consumption trends change. Wren spoke at considerable length to the trade magazine, addressing everything from a relatively slow start in red-hot emerging markets to rumors of his retirement to the rebundling of media.

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