Ann Fudge

Ann Fudge is former Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, a global network of pre-eminent companies across the full range of marketing communications. Young & Rubicam Brands companies include Y&R (advertising), Burson-Marsteller (public relations/public affairs), Wunderman (direct and database marketing), Landor Associates (brand consulting and creative design), Sudler & Hennessey (strategic healthcare communications) and Cohn & Wolfe (public relations) among others. Prior to Young & Rubicam Brands, Ms. Fudge served as 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, where she began as a Marketing Assistant and rose to the level of Marketing Director. She serves on the Board of Directors of Northrop Grumman and Novartis. She serves as Chair of the Board of GBH Public Media. Ms. Fudge is a trustee of the Brookings Institution and served on the Boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Finance Committee of the Harvard University Corporation, and Chair of the U.S. Program Advisory Panel for the Gates Foundation. She has served as Vice Chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers, on the Board of Catalyst, the NY Philharmonic and on the Board of Governors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She has also served on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liz Claiborne, Allied Signal, Honeywell, Marriott International, Infosys and General Electric. In February, 2010 President Obama appointed Ms. Fudge to serve on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform which issued its Report, “The Moment of Truth”, in December, 2010. She has also served on the Foreign Affairs Policy Board of the U.S. State Department.

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. In 2019 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 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 has been profiled in Black Enterprise, Business Week and The New York Times, among others and named by Fortune magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in American business. Ms. Fudge received her BA from Simmons College and her MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business.