What Katy Did Next: Meet the new CEO of AMV BBDO

There are plenty of ways to make your mark as a leader in advertising. Some do it through force of personality, others through an almost evangelical belief in the power of creativity. Katy Wright has always done it her own particular way: big personality, creative passion, ambition with integrity, and a gift for making people want to do brilliant things and then helping them achieve them.

It's an approach that has served her well throughout a career spanning more than two decades, much of it spent at FCB London, where she became CEO in 2022. And it should serve her particularly well as she takes on the chief executive role at AMV BBDO, one of British advertising's most storied creative agencies.

Wright's appointment is an important moment for both her and AMV. She takes on the leadership of an agency with an extraordinary creative heritage, an impressive roster of clients and a continuing appetite for producing work that makes a difference to businesses and to culture. Importantly, it’s an agency that’s absolutely ready for Wright’s ambitious growth plans and client servicing chops. As Nancy Reyes, the global chief of BBDO, says: “Katy has a real hustle mentality. She sees an opportunity, brings people with her and gets things moving. There’s a vibrancy and ambition to her that feels very AMV — the spirit that has always made this agency such a special place. She combines that energy with a deep commitment to clients and great creative work.”

AMV is also an agency that has been through considerable change. The integration of FCB London and AMV BBDO has brought together two businesses with distinct histories, cultures and strengths. Wright, who joined AMV earlier this year as chief client and business officer, now has the task of helping that combined talent and ambition flourish.

Fortunately, bringing people together is something of a speciality. Wright is one of those relatively rare advertising leaders who combines commercial sharpness with a genuine enjoyment of people. She's energetic, funny, charismatic, oh and a terrific mimic. But beneath the warmth and humour is a formidable business brain, a fierce competitive ambition and an instinctive understanding of what makes client relationships work.

As Owen Lee, a long-standing colleague, has observed: "That killer combination is incredibly powerful. Clients love to work with her, hang out with her and laugh with her, but critically they also listen to her when she needs to tackle difficult conversations. The result? Better relationships and stronger work."

And Wright's understanding of the relationship between people, business and creativity feels especially pertinent for AMV right now. The agency has long been associated with some of the most admired work in British advertising, but its reputation rests on more than its creative history. AMV has also demonstrated an enduring ability to connect creativity to commercial effectiveness. Its recent IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix for Currys, won alongside Spark Foundry, recognised how the agency helped transform the retailer's fortunes, generating £500m in incremental revenue and demonstrating what can happen when an agency and client share a sustained commitment to a creative idea. It's the sort of success Wright  understands instinctively. She has always regarded strong client partnerships and creative ambition as inseparable, rather than competing priorities. For her, the best relationships are built on honesty, trust and a shared determination to make something worthwhile. "You have to feel like a team," she has said. "And it goes way beyond the day to day - ultimately you care. And of course, really making sure that you have the same creative ambition."

That philosophy matters more than ever as agencies navigate a complicated commercial environment in which clients need partners who understand their businesses, can help them make sense of change and are prepared to offer more than agreeable reassurance. Matt Stone, marketing director at Kimberly-Clark, has previously credited Wright with helping unlock the potential of both agency and client businesses. "Katy is proof that values and authenticity drive business. I can honestly say that her energy, dedication and genuine partnership has been pivotal in unlocking the collective potential of our businesses," he said.

That ability to influence the culture of a business, rather than simply its commercial performance, may prove to be one of Wright’s most valuable attributes in her new role.

AMV is a business with a strong identity and considerable pride in its people and its work. Its achievements reflect the contributions of successive generations of some of the industry’s best leaders and creative talent, including most recently Xavier Rees. The bench of management talent also speaks for itself, from Wright’s old FCB partners Rob Oldfield, Owen Lee, and Ben Jaffee, to AMV’s Jo Arden, new CCO Mark Elwood, AMV veteran and recently promoted MD Nick Andrew, Pip Foster, and Jemima Monies. So Wright inherits an agency with a substantial legacy of achievement and ambition but one that also feels ready to push on with a new vigour.

Her own career has been characterised by loyalty and really putting in the work, rising through the account management ranks to MD at FCB, where she was effectively running the agency well before being officially handed the CEO title. She built the agency with discipline and grace, guiding it through the transition from the old FCB Inferno model into one of the most successful offices across the FCB global network. And as her old agency closed its doors at the end of last year, it did so after one its most successful years – one characterised by craft, consistency, and humanity – exactly the values that made it matter in the first place. But Wright has never appeared particularly interested in leadership as an exercise in personal grandeur. Instead, her greatest satisfaction seems to come from growing businesses and creating the conditions in which others can succeed. And although she once trained as an RAF fighter pilot, her success in advertising has owed rather more to collaboration than combat.

Wright now takes on an agency with an extraordinary history, a wealth of talent and plenty of ambition for what comes next. Her opportunity is to help its people build on those foundations and write the next chapter of that history. And if her career so far is any indication, she'll take considerable pleasure in helping them do it. We can’t wait for what Katy does next.