Grey Global Group

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Grey Group
Type	Subsidiary, WPP Group
Founded	1917
Headquarters	New York, NY
Key people	James R. Heekin III Chairman & CEO
Industry	Marketing
Revenue	1.307 billion USD (2003)
Employees	6,500
Website	www.grey.com

Grey Group is a New York City-based global advertising and marketing agency.

A unit of communications conglomerate WPP Group, Grey Group provides direct marketing, branding, public relations, interactive, advertising and promotional communication services through its subsidiaries Grey (previously known as Grey Worldwide), G2, Grey Healthcare, GCI, MediaCom Worldwide, Alliance, G WHIZ, and WINGLATINO.

[edit] History

Founded in 1917 by Larry Valenstein and Arthur Fatt, Grey Global Group began as a direct marketing company named Grey Studios, reflecting the color of the wall or its original quarters, changing to Grey Advertising in 1925.

In 1956, Grey acquired its first major client, Procter & Gamble. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Grey continued to acquire such major accounts, and grew into related communication fields.

In 1988, the off-shore operation, London based Grey Communications Group, recruited Barry Chapman as Group IS Director. In 1989 Chapman developed the New Media Experiment. Chapman explored the use of the internet as an alternative to traditional advertising media putting Grey at the forefront of the internet revolution.

In 2000, Grey Advertising became Grey Global Group. On March 7, 2005, WPP Group beat out Havas in a race to acquire Grey Global, the seventh-largest advertising agency at the time,^{[citation needed]} for approximately 1.3 billion USD.

In late 2005, James R. Heekin III (Jim Heekin) became CEO of Grey Worldwide, Grey Global Group's traditional advertising agency. In 2007, he became Chairman and CEO of Grey Group, the renamed agency holding company. He reports to Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group. Steve Hardwick, recently hired as President of Grey New York, reports to Mr. Heekin. Hardwick was hired to turn around Grey New York's mediocre business development performance. He was formerly President of Strawberryfrog, an independent creative agency.