Kirk McDonald

Kirk McDonald is a proven, purpose-driven business and marketing leader. He is recognized for his ability to inspire teams of all sizes to embrace change and drive business transformation to deliver results and accelerate growth. He currently serves as a director on the boards of Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) where he is the compensation committee chair and a member of the innovation committee, and Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: ZD) where he is also a member of the compensation committee, and the environmental, social and governance committee. Kirk is a member of the prestigious Executive Leadership Council and a founding member of the Black Executive CMO Alliance. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors of several industry organizations including: Co-Chair of the Ad Council, and Paley Center for Media.

From 2020 through 2023, Kirk was CEO of GroupM North America where he led and aligned the purpose of ~6,500 individuals to drive client media performance and growth. GroupM NA managed ~22% market share in the world’s largest region, growing consistently for three consecutive years to meet and/or exceeding business objectives. During that time, he also created and launched the Media Inclusion Initiative to support and grow diverse media companies and creators and recently expanded to include Latino, AAPI, and LGBTQ+ categories. Kirk’s passion for developing the next generation of talent through mentorship and scaled learning programs, led to the launch of GroupM University, NA and GroupM Launch Pad. Both programs were designed to bridge career gaps for applicants from non-traditional backgrounds and education pathways.

Prior to joining GroupM, Kirk was the Chief Business Officer Warner Media, a division of AT&T, after holding the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Xandr, where he spearhead the business development and launch of the award-winning Xandr brand, within AT&T. Before joining AT&T, Kirk was President of PubMatic, Inc. a leading marketing automation software company sitting at the intersection of media and technology. Prior to PubMatic, Kirk was President of Digital, Time Inc. He also served as Chief Advertising Officer of the Fortune|Money Group, overseeing worldwide advertising sales, integrated marketing, and the events business. He’s previously held senior sales, marketing and client success positions at Aquantive’s DRIVEpm and Atlas Enterprise, CNET, ZiffDavis and Condé Nast.

Kirk has been recognized throughout his career for his pioneering leadership. He was named to Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 List, Empower’s Top 100 Executives List for 2022 and 2023, as an honoree at the 2022 Black Men Xcel Summit, and on the Adweek 50 List of Vital Leaders in Tech, Media & Marketing. The launch of the Xandr brand under his leadership won the 2019 award for Best Brand Launch in the Drum Marketing Awards. His expertise and commentary on key technology trends and the future of digital media have been published in leading industry and trade publications including The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Beet.TV, AdExchanger, Adweek, The Drum, and many more.