Alumni spotlight: Kathleen Donald
Kathleen Donald was named chief operating officer at Lowe Campbell Ewald in July 2013 and is responsible for account management, strategic planning and analytics, digital communications, media planning and buying, and overall agency process.
Donald has a rare ability to see the big picture with acute accuracy and objectivity, as well as lead with clear vision and fairness. This comes, in part, from her ability to consume and process large amounts of information and detail. It also comes from her natural problem-solving ability. She is able to take on complex and multi-level challenges, and while she may not admit it, the more complex, the more energized she is in solving it. She will find multiple solutions for a challenge, and then present an action plan for each.
When it comes to clients and coworkers, Donald’s fierce loyalty is driven by her personal value of integrity: do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Not that Donald is always easy to sway: she is a unique blend of formidable business professional and compassion, and she sees the business and human side of situations with great clarity.
The COO role at Lowe Campbell Ewald is the latest in a series of roles with increasing operational responsibilities. In her previous role as president, managing director, she continued to lead the U.S. Navy account, which has been with the agency for 13 years. She also established and ran the agency’s San Antonio office.
Prior to joining the agency, Donald worked as regional group brand director at Ogilvy & Mather-London, where she restructured processes on the Ford of Europe account to bring greater strategic and creative thinking to bear on the client’s work. As director of brand planning at Ogilvy & Mather-Detroit, she co-created Ford’s brand management system, co-developed the agency’s first planning process, and brought global alignment to all of Ford’s research activities.
Donald earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1986 from the Wayne State University School of Business Administration. She resides in Royal Oak, Michigan. She adores her family and loves traveling, particularly to Northern Michigan.
