The Advertising Hall of Achievement: 2005 Inductees

Tim Armstrong, VP, advertising sales, Google Inc.
Tim Armstrong presides over Google's North American advertising sales and operations teams. Armstrong's team is located in cities across the United States and Canada, providing customers with local partnerships as well as centralized sales and services. His team works with some of the world's most widely recognized brands and advertising agencies, as well as some of the fastest growing medium-sized companies.

Armstrong joined Google from Snowball.com as that company's vice president of sales and strategic partnerships. Prior to his role at Snowball.com, Armstrong served as director of integrated sales & marketing at Starwave's and Disney's ABC/ESPN Internet Ventures, working across the company's Internet, TV, radio and print properties. He started his career by co-founding and running a newspaper based in Boston, Mass., before joining IDG to launch their first consumer Internet magazine, I-Way.

Armstrong has been named one of the top "100 People to Know" for global media by Media magazine and was awarded a Media Maven Award by Advertising Agein 2004. He sits on the boards of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), KnowledgeStorm Inc. and Associated Content Inc. Armstrong is a graduate of Connecticut College with a double major in economics and sociology.

Laura Desmond, chief executive officer, MediaVest USA

One of the youngest CEOs of a top 10 U.S. media services agency, Laura Desmond has had a career driven by two caveats: keep your eye on the goal and learn more from failure than from success. This approach has served her well throughout her meteoric media career during which she has earned seven promotions — including one in 2002 to her current post.

Under Desmond's leadership, MediaVest has been awarded significant new business assignments from both new and existing clients, including Coca-Cola, Masterfoods, Procter & Gamble and more recently EarthLink and Mattel. In addition to new business, MediaVest evolved its core services to include dedicated expertise across digital, entertainment marketing, print and consumer context planning (CCP).

Armed with a 50-plus-year heritage of innovation and industry firsts, Desmond has led MediaVest to leadership status earning the company a number of high-profile accolades, including Adweek's 2004 "Media Agency of the Year" as well as "Media Agency of the Year" from Advertising Age and Mediamagazines under SMG. Additionally, MediaVest consistently receives one of the highest "grades" awarded to a top 10 U.S. media services company by Adweek and RECMA. In 2004, MediaWeeknamed Desmond a media executive All-Star, Business 2.0 named her to its Dream Team of Young Executives as its only representative from the advertising and media services industries and most recently Advertising Age named her a "Media Maven."

Prior to her current role, Desmond was named chief executive, Starcom MediaVest Group Latin America in 2000. In a fairly unique arrangement, Desmond worked as an interim media services director for General Motors while still a Leo Burnett employee. Desmond was also the international media director based in London on leading brands including Kellogg and Coca-Cola. Desmond began her career at Starcom in 1987 as a media associate.

David Jones, global chief executive officer, Euro RSCG Worldwide

David Jones was appointed global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide at the age of 38. He leads the network's 10,000 staff across 233 offices in 75 countries.

In his time as CEO of Euro RSCG New York, he turned the agency into one of New York's hottest shops by winning the global Jaguar car business and the North American Charles Schwab accounts, as well as significant assignments from Heineken, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Schering-Plough.

Jones was previously the EVP, managing director of global business, leading Euro RSCG's 42 multinational clients. Jones also served as global brand director for Reckitt Benckiser, after leading the agency's successful pitch for the $500 million worldwide business.

Jones joined Euro RSCG Partnership Australia in 1998 as managing director and in 1999 was appointed CEO. Under his leadership, Euro RSCG Partnership Australia was named "Australia's Agency of the Year" in 2000 and 2001 and was named Australia's "Interactive Agency of the Year" four times. He has appeared on the cover of GQmagazine as one of Australia's "Top Ten Businessmen Under 40" and was named one of Media and Marketing Europe's "40 Under 40" in 2003.

Prior to joining Euro RSCG, Jones was at the time the youngest ever board director at AMV/BBDO in the UK. He has also worked at Lowe Europe, J. Walter Thompson and BDH/TBWA. He possesses an extensive depth of experience working with many of the world's premier marketers, including Unilever, Mars, Nestle, Pizza Hut, Dell, Intel, Volvo, Orange, Cadbury, Braun, British Telecom, Siemens and Henkel.

Jacki Kelley, senior vice president of advertising, USA TODAY

Jacki Kelley is responsible for USA TODAY advertising operations worldwide. She was named to her current position in July 2000.

Kelley has held several positions with USA TODAY. These include vice president of advertising responsible for USA TODAY's largest single category—travel; director, national circulation sales, responsible for worldwide circulation sales of USA TODAY in the travel category; and manager, sales development, responsible for creation and implementation of training programs for the circulation sales team.

Kelley began her career at USA TODAY in 1987 as an intern in the Los Angeles circulation office. She moved to the Dallas circulation market in 1988. She was promoted to regional marketing manager in 1990. She moved to USA TODAY headquarters in Arlington, Va., in 1992 to lead the national sales training efforts for circulation. In 1996, Kelley became the director of national circulation sales, leading USA TODAY's amenity program focused on the travel industry. This extended to advertising in 1999 when Kelley transferred to become the vice president of advertising for the travel category.

Today, Kelley remains active in the travel category as a trustee of the American Hotel and Lodging Foundation, a member of Marketing Committee of the Travel Industry Association and a member of the Travel Business Roundtable. Kelley is also involved with the various advertising associations and serves on the national board of the American Advertising Federation.

Presented with this year's AAF Jack Avrett Volunteer Spirit Award, Kelley is personally involved with many charities. She is on the national board of Boys Hope Girls Hope, which helps children that are hurt or at risk, yet academically capable, to realize their potential by providing value-centered, family-like homes and quality education through college.

Kelley is a graduate of Pepperdine University.

Eric Silver, EVP, executive creative director, BBDO New York

Eric Silver works on the FedEx, DirecTV, Snickers and Guinness accounts at BBDO New York.

In 1990, after watching numerous episodes of L.A. Law,Eric decided to enroll in law school. It was a great experience, but it didn't seem quite as cool as advertising. Over the next six years, he worked at Chiat/Day, Earle Palmer Brown, Wieden + Kennedy, Foote, Cone & Belding and Goodby, Silversteinn & Partners. In addition to traveling across the county, Silver got to work on high-profile accounts such as MTV, Reebok, Nike, ESPN and Levi's.

In the summer of 1997, he took a job as a staff writer for The Late Show with David Letterman.Once again, it was a great experience, but it wasn't quite as cool as advertising.

Silver's next stop was as a creative director at Cliff Freeman and Partners, where he worked on FOX Sports, Outpost.com, Budget Rent a Car, Hollywood Video and Mike's Hard Lemonade.

As a writer and creative director, Silver has won every major creative award several times over, including Best of Show at the One Show twice, Best of Show at the Clios twice, the Grand Prix at Cannes, 6 D&AD pencils and ADDY^®Awards. He has served as judge at the One Show, Clios and D&AD. His work has been written about in USA Today, Newsweek, The New York Times, New York magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide. Silver has been named a creative All-Star by Adweek. His favorite color is navy blue, though sometimes he confuses it with black.

Heidi Ueberroth, executive vice president, global media properties and marketing partnerships, NBA Entertainment

Heidi Ueberroth oversees many of the NBA's revenue-generating operations, including all NBA and WNBA sponsorship and advertising business. She is also responsible for the distribution of NBA and WNBA content worldwide. Under her direction, NBA programming reaches a global audience through 157 international television networks broadcasting to 214 countries in 43 languages, and the league has marketing partnerships with 20 blue-chip companies, including market leaders Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Anheuser-Busch, Nestle, Electronic Arts and Toyota.

Since joining the NBA in 1994 as director of international media programs, Ueberroth has crafted the master plan for the NBA's overall global television and media strategy. In 1993, 105 countries televised NBA games and 5,000 total programming hours were distributed overseas. Under Ueberroth's guidance, the international reach has more than doubled as this season 214 countries have numerous weekly televised games and more than 22,000 total NBA programming hours are distributed internationally.

Ueberroth directs the NBA's business initiatives in China. She is overseeing the league's expanding list of marketing partnerships with global marketers and China-based companies. She was instrumental in producing the 2004 NBA China Games, the NBA's first-ever games in China.

Because of her achievements, she has been honored three times by the Sports Business Journal,the leading sports business trade publication, in its "Forty Under 40" sports executives list. The magazine also named Ueberroth in the top five of its inaugural 20 Most Influential Women in Sports Business list.

Ueberroth is currently a board member of the Advertising Council and a trustee of the Cancer Research Institute. She served on the advisory board for the 1999 Women's World Cup and has been a director of the Ueberroth Family Charitable Foundation since its formation in 1990.

Liz Vanzura, global director of marketing, HUMMER, General Motors Corporation

Liz Vanzura has responsibility for developing and executing HUMMER's overall marketing strategy, positioning and branding for HUMMER's products worldwide. Vanzura heads up an internal staff and provides direction to HUMMER's advertising agency, Modernista!

Prior to her position at HUMMER, Vanzura was the director of marketing for Volkswagen of America from late 1996 through 2000. In that capacity, Vanzura directed one of the most recognized and successful advertising campaigns in automotive history, including the historic relaunch of the Beetle as well as four other new Volkswagen models.

Highlights of Vanzura's career include three-time Automotive News All-Star (advertising), 2004 Gold ADDY Award/Best in Show TV finalist, 2003 Brandweek Top Marketers of the Next Generation Award, 2003 Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune Best Ad of the Year, Advertising Age 2003 Highest Recalled and Most Likeable Advertising, 2002 Business 2.0's 20 Young Execs You Need to Know, 2001 Advertising Age Top Women to Watch Award, 1999 Best Overall Client Clio Award (any industry), Advertising Age 1999 Top 100 Marketing Professional, 1998 Cannes Grand Prix Winner, 1998 USA Today Best Overall Advertising Campaign and 1998 Advertising Age Marketer of the Year.

Vanzura has been a featured speaker at a number of marketing and advertising conferences and serves on the board of the Detroit Adcraft Club. Vanzura received her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with honors from General Motors Institute and her master's in business administration from Harvard University as a General Motors Fellow.