Top level corporate executive Morgan Flatley, Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo Global Nutrition Group and SVP/ Global Grains, was named the 2016 Chicago Advertising Woman of the Year by the Chicago Advertising Federation.
The honor went to an advertising woman “who has provided outstanding leadership and made significant contributions to her company, the advertising community and the development of others,” says Jill Sylvester, CAF board president.
But unlike the Chicago Ad Woman of the Year honors over the past 59 years, the CAF this year will not be hosting an open, industry-wide celebratory luncheon. Instead, at Flatley’s personal request, the small, invitation-only luncheon will be for Flatley’s closest colleagues and family.
The restricted luncheon this year is an exception, notes Sylvester, “and the CAF will be back in the cadence of the traditional community-wide celebration luncheon next year.”
Among CAF’s list of the last 15 Ad Woman of the Year honorees, Flatley is the fifth recipient from corporate advertising side. Of these 15, nine honorees were from Publicis Groupe-owned Leo Burnett, Starcom and agency Lapiz and clients Allstate and McDonald’s, demonstrating the shift from recognizing agency creative leadership to corporate business accomplishments.
“The trend toward naming honorees from corporate may be due in part to the expansion of media agencies in Chicago,” Sylvester says.
The other past honorees were from Burrell, Draftfcb and FCB.
Before joining the Global Nutrition Group, Flatley was CMO of PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand, responsible for Gatorade’s long-term innovation pipeline that helped broaden the brand’s offerings to include more performance nutrition options, athlete services and streamlined packaging. During her tenure, Gatorade saw a return to multi-year growth.
Prior to Gatorade, Flatley worked on Pepsi’s music platform, overseeing the development, promotion and execution of the Pepsi Smash Live national concerts. She started her career at Saatchi & Saatchi-New York in 1999 and joined PepsiCo in 2004.
A graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard Business School, Flately is a board member of the Chicago Children’s Museum and the Women’s Justice Initiative for Guatemala, which is dedicated to preventing and addressing gender-based violence.
She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children.
