Jean-Marie Dru Biography

Jean-Marie Dru, a graduate of HEC Business School, began his career in advertising in 1971 with Dupuy Compton (now Saatchi & Saatchi) and quickly rose to the position of Executive Creative Director. In 1977, he joined Young & Rubicam in Paris as Managing Director, before becoming the agency’s Chief Executive Officer in 1979.

In 1984, he co-founded BDDP, which was acquired by Omnicom and merged with TBWA in 1998. He became President International of TBWA\Worldwide in 1998 and was appointed President and CEO Worldwide in January 2001, a position that he held until January 2008, when he moved to his current role of Chairman.

Jean-Marie Dru has published six books on advertising and marketing: “Jet Lag” (PowerHouse Books, 2012), “How Disruption Brought Order” (Palgrave, 2007), “Beyond Disruption” (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2002), “Disruption” (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1996) and “Le Saut Créatif” (Lattès, 1984). His new book, “The Ways To New. 15 Paths To Disruptive Innovation” (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2015) was released in December 2015 in New York.

Jean-Marie Dru has been President of the Film Jury of the Cannes Advertising Festival twice - first in 1982 and again in 1998. He has also been the Jury President of the first-ever Cannes Creative Effectiveness Award in 2011.

Jean-Marie Dru is a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, officially referred to as Sciences Po Paris. He became Chairman of the French Academy of Medicine Foundation in January 2013 and Chairman of UNICEF France in June 2015.

In 2008, Jean-Marie Dru was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur for his long-lasting contribution to the advertising industry and to the business world. Jean-Marie Dru will be inducted in the Advertising Hall of Fame in New York in April 2016.

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