Kirk McDonald

Kirk McDonald is the Chief Executive Officer at GroupM, North America, where he leads a staff of 6,500 people. He’s a member of GroupM’s Global Leadership Team, he is a key player in championing GroupM’s strategy to work with agency and GroupM leadership in the region to use its scale in providing more powerful and effective solutions for clients through the development of technology-enabled services.

Work Experience

Mr. McDonald joined GroupM from WarnerMedia’s Xandr, which is a company spun off from AT&T and encompasses all aspects of the existing AT&T advertising & analytics businesses, where he served as Chief Business Officer. He was previously Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Xandr.

He was previously Chief Marketing Officer and member of the core team responsible for launching the new Advertising and Analytics business within AT&T.

Prior to AT&T, he was President of PubMatic (October 2011 - August 2017). As President of the company, Mr. McDonald is driving the next stage of PubMatic's growth.

Before joining PubMatic, Mr. McDonald was President of Digital at Time Inc, where he brought together the company's digital assets to deliver audience and brand solutions to clients.

Prior to Time Digital, he was CEO of the Fortune|Money Group, where he oversaw worldwide advertising sales and integrated marketing.

Prior to his leadership position at Fortune|Money, Mr. McDonald was Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Client Services for DRIVEpm and Atlas, which were both key units of Microsoft's advertising business.

In addition, Mr. McDonald spent nine years at CNET, where he was the Senior Vice President of network sales, and developed hugely successful strategic partnerships with the top tier of technology marketers.

Board and Advisor Roles

Mr. McDonald currently serves on the Board of Directors for Elanco (NYSE: ELAN), and is a member of the prestigious Executive Leadership Council. He also serves on several other professional and not-for-profit boards including the Ad Council, Advertising Week Advisory Council, and is the co-chair of MOUSE/CI. He was an advisor on the LUMA Partners board and the Chairman of a small not-for-profit, Camp Interactive, which empowers inner city youth through the inspiration of the outdoors and the creative power of technology.

Accolades

Throughout his career, Mr. McDonald received many accolades including being named to Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list in 2018, Adweek’s 2014 “12 Stars of Ad Tech Who are Building the Future of the Industry Right Now” list and Business Insider’s 2014 “The 46 Most Important African-Americans in Technology” list, among others.

Education

Mr. McDonald is a graduate of The City College of New York.