Ann Marie Fudge

Ms. Fudge served as chairman and chief executive officer of Young & Rubicam Brands at WPP Group PLC from May 2003 to December 2006.

Prior to that, she served in various leadership positions at Kraft Foods from 1986 to 2001, including President, Beverages, Desserts and Post Division—a $5 billion unit of Kraft Foods. She served on Kraft’s Management Committee and has managed many businesses including Maxwell House Coffee, Gevalia Kaffe, Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, Post cereals, Jell-O desserts, and Altoids.

Before joining General Foods, she spent nine years at General Mills (1977-1986), where she began as a Marketing Assistant and rose to the level of Marketing Director.

Ms. Fudge is a director of Northrop Grumman and Novartis AG. 

She also serves as Chair of the U.S. Program Advisory Panel for the Gates Foundation. She is Vice Chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers, a trustee of Morehouse College, and a trustee of WGBH Public Media, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Brookings Institution.  

Ms. Fudge also serves on the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.  She previously served on the boards of Unilever NV, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, General Electric Company, Marriott International, Liz Claiborne, Honeywell International, Allied Signal, Infosys Limited, Catalyst, the New York Philharmonic, Simpson-Bowles Commission, the U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Policy Board and on the Board of Governors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Ms. Fudge has received the Matrix Award for Advertising from New York Women in Communication and was a recipient of the NY Executive Council’s Ten Awards for leadership and innovation in business.  She was named one of Time Magazine’s Global Business Influentials. Among her other honors are Leadership Awards from the Minneapolis and New York City YWCA, an Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Ebony magazine, and a Legacy Award in Business from Black Enterprise magazine. She was named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in American business.

Ms. Fudge received a bachelor's degree in retail management from Simmons College in 1973 and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1977.