UM’s Kathy Doyle on the Challenges Agencies Face Today

Kathy Doyle, Executive Vice President, Managing Partner of Universal McCann, had an unlikely path to a career in advertising. Having switched her college major from business to education and finding that there were no teaching jobs upon graduation, she began tending bar at a TGI Fridays. Luckily this bar was located between two advertising agencies where Kathy came into contact with agency executives. One, Jack Ryan from Burnett, would from time to time offer entry level opportunities to restaurant employees. Kathy soon found herself in the accounting department at Burnett. “It was a weird career path to advertising but a happy one,” she recalls. My interview with her follows.