Kirk McDonald | Founding Member

“Those who have lived and continue to operate through the problem are often in the best position to drive change. BECA, in the context of this moment in history, is about sharing and elevating the strengths and talents of many of our hidden leaders and our culture at a time when true authenticity and purpose-driven leadership is needed. BECA is responding to a cultural, social, and business need and it is their time to lead.”

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 is the CEO of Sundial Media Group (SMG), a vertically integrated media, technology and experiential company that includes Essence Ventures: ESSENCE including Girls United and Naturally Curly; AFROPUNK; ESSENCE Festival of Culture; and R29: Refinery29 including Beautycon; Somos and Unbothered.

Kirk also 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 serves on 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.

Kirk was CEO of GroupM North America from 2020 through 2023 where he led and aligned the purpose of ~6,500 individuals to drive client media performance and growth, while striving to shape this next era of media and advertising. With $17+ billion in media investment billings across the U.S. and Canada in 2023, GroupM managed ~22% market share in the world’s largest region, growing consistently for three consecutive years meeting 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, which saw triple-digit growth in investment toward black-owned media and was recently expanded to include Latino, AAPI, and LGBTQ+ categories. Kirk has been especially passionate about developing the next generation of talent, launching GroupM University and GroupM Launch Pad to bridge career gaps for applicants from non-traditional backgrounds and education pathways.
Kirk joined GroupM from WarnerMedia’s Xandr where he served as Chief Business Officer in charge of the go to market functions including sales, communications, product marketing and marketing strategy/execution after holding the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Xandr, where he spearheads 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.

Kirk’s 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.

Kirk lives in the greater NYC area with his wife and two adult children.