Ann Boden is stepping down as president and CEO of OMD Canada at the end of 2001 after 30 years in the business. She has been named chairman and will still be available as a resource as needed. She is currently searching for her replacement both within and outside of OMD and will help with the transition.

‘I’ve had a fabulous career but I have always believed that you go out at the top,’ says Boden. ‘You don’t go when people want to kick you out the door. You go when they want you to stay. I feel it’s the right time.

‘It’s always the people you miss in this business and my staff has been like my family. I would never go anywhere else to work, my heart is here.’

The high-profile Boden has been very active in organizations such as the Canadian Media Directors’ Council. She also garnered recognition as the ACA Gold Medal winner in 1991.

She plans to spend her retirement reading, playing more golf, traveling, spending more time with family and taking a financial planning course.

Boden first joined the advertising business with Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto, but then spent the bulk of her career in the media department of McKim Advertising, which later evolved into BBDO Canada.

She became head of the country’s largest media buying operation in 1998 with the formation of OMD Canada, part of the Omnicom network with projected 2001 media billings of $900 million.