VMLY&R Strengthens Media Department with Two Dynamite Leaders

Jennifer Kohl left, Chrissie Mealy right

In a push to further boost and unify media efforts across the network, VMLY&R announced Jennifer Kohl as executive director, head of US media, and welcomed Chrissie Mealy as managing director, paid media.

Jennifer will lead VMLY&R’s media practice across the United States. She takes on responsibility for the operations, delivery and business development that span the full media offering, ensuring the agency’s media capabilities and solutions are competitive in an ever-changing media landscape.

A seasoned VMLY&R leader, Jennifer has spent most of her career at WPP across media teams at BrandBuzz/GroupM before joining Y&R. With the merger of VML and Y&R in 2018, Jennifer stepped up to lead the integrated VMLY&R media team in New York, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago as SVP, executive director, integrated media. With her latest promotion, VMLY&R’s largest media office, Kansas City, also becomes part of her remit.

Jennifer is known for her leadership, expertise, and client relationships as well as her thought leadership and contributions to supporting working parents and the Asian community, both at VMLY&R and beyond. She serves as the co-chair for VMLY&R’s Asian employee resource group (ERG), B.East, and is the founder of Embrace, the agency’s caregiver ERG. Some of Kohl’s recent achievements include being included in Ad Age’s Women to Watch and She Runs It’s Working Mothers of the Year awards. She is a nominated member of Advisor Council and has been inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers. She remains based in New York and will report directly to Amy Worley, global chief connections officer. 

Chrissie will lead the Kansas City media team as managing director, paid media. She will continue to develop and grow the team, as well as build streamlined processes and new business efforts using creative problem-solving. 

Chrissie brings more than 20 years of media experience, developing strategic multichannel plans at both the national and local levels. Most recently, Chrissie served as vice president of media at Attane, formerly GlynnDevins. Previously she held positions at Applebee’s and Barkley, helping to build iconic brands such as Sonic Drive-In. She will report directly to Jennifer as a part of Amy’s department.

“Not only is Jennifer a strong leader who pushes to build media solutions hand and hand with creative, she is also a force in the industry who fights for many to discover their voice and path,” Amy said. “We are also so thrilled to welcome Chrissie to the team. I am confident that the two of them will take VMLY&R’s media offerings to the next level.”

Both Jennifer’s promotion and Chrissie’s hire are integral to unifying and bolstering the media offerings across the VMLY&R network, working in partnership with sister agencies GroupM, Mindshare, Wavemaker, and Essence.