Board of Directors

 Heide Gardner is the first woman of color to be elected as a corporate officer and member of the senior management team at IPG.  Her accomplishments include leading IPG’s global inclusion strategy, developing network programs to support agency diversity and inclusion efforts, and working on issues related to multicultural marketing and media. Prior to joining Interpublic Group, Heide was a Senior Vice President of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the founding Executive Director of The AAF Mosaic Center on Multiculturalism. There, she coordinated the industry’s first Congressional Summit on Diversity and Multicultural Marketing, and launched AAF's Most Promising Minority Students Program.  Heide’s many honors include being one of the first inductees of the Ebony Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications award in 2000, the Woman of Distinction award by the New York Council of Girl Scouts in 2006, and The AdColor Coalition’s first recipient of an AdColor Change Agent Award in 2007.  In 2008, Heide was included in The Network Journal’s roster of the Most Influential Black Women in Business. She is a volunteer director for the NY Council of Girl Scouts, the International Radio and Television Society Foundation and has served on the board of the American Association of Advertising Agencies Foundation.