Peggy Conlon

Peggy Conlon joined The Advertising Council in June 1999. As President, Ms. Conlon serves as Chief Executive Officer of an organization that mobilizes yearly more than $1.5 billion of advertising time and space, the creative services of over 50 major advertising agencies and related financial support from hundreds of corporations.

Since Ms. Conlon joined the Ad Council, the organization has tripled the work done on behalf of premier government and non-profit organizations such as the American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters, United Way of America, the American Heart Association, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and many more. She has worked closely with President Obama on critical issues such as high school dropout prevention, civic engagement and fatherhood involvement, as well as the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign to end childhood obesity.

Ms. Conlon organized the entire U.S. advertising industry to address the critical issues resulting from the events of September 11th and to help Americans respond to the crisis. She also led the organization’s production and distribution of the PSAs featuring former Presidents Bush and Clinton in support of the Tsunami Relief Effort, Hurricane Katrina and the Earthquake in Haiti.

Ms. Conlon serves on the Board of Trustees of the United Way Worldwide and served for six years on the United Way of America board. Ms. Conlon has been appointed by former President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush to lead the national media initiative for C-Change, formerly the National Dialogue on Cancer and served on its Board of Directors for six years. Ms. Conlon is also a member of the World Economic Forum's Media, Entertainment and Information Global Agenda Council.

Ms. Conlon comes to The Advertising Council from Cahners Business Information where she served as Vice President, Group Publisher of the Broadcasting & Cable Group. Her experience has also included work at advertising agencies and as an advertising director for corporations.

Ms. Conlon earned her B.A. in communications from the California State University at Fullerton and her M.A. from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California. She also served as a public affairs officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve for seven years. She was awarded the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award for Advertising in 2002, and she was named “2005 Advertising Woman of the Year” by Advertising Women of New York (AWNY).