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Heide Gardner was named Director of Diversity in November of 2003 and promoted to Vice President, Diversity Management in December 2004. She was elected to the post of Senior Vice President, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer in 2007. The first African American and person of color to serve as an officer of Interpublic Group (IPG), she is responsible for collaborating with senior management to develop new global inclusion management strategies and multicultural marketing programs for IPG and its worldwide family of leading agency brands which employ 44,000 employees. Through her office, the company is working to maximize professional development opportunities for women and people of color, to deploy world class education and training on diversity and inclusion management practices, and to better leverage relationships with diverse business partners and external organizations.
Prior to joining Interpublic Group, Heide was a senior vice president of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and the founding Executive Director of The AAF Mosaic Center on Multiculturalism. During her tenure, Heide was responsible for the development and implementation of innovative programs to promote diversity and a more methodical, strategic approach to brand building among multicultural consumers. She also worked to build bridges across industry segments, uniting many of advertising's most influential leaders to create a groundbreaking set of paradigms for leveraging diversity, The Mosaic Principles . Heide also launched AAF's Most Promising Minority Students Program, which is an enduring major hiring pipeline for agencies, clients and media companies. She has been recognized as a facilitator of President Clinton's Executive Order that included a provision to encourage business opportunities for diverse companies and media in federal government advertising contracts.
In her past life, Heide's portfolio of experience spanned a variety of roles in marketing services, lobbying and community affairs for companies including Advo-System, Coca-Cola Enterprises -- the world's largest soft drink bottler, Colgate-Palmolive, Pepsi-Cola North America, NationsBank (now Bank of America) and others.
Heide received many honors during her career and was one of the first inductees for the Ebony Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications award in 2000. She was also recognized by Working Mother Magazine as a mother of the year, in Mothers We Love of 2000 -- the same year J.K. Rowling was selected. Most recently she was recognized as a Woman of Distinction by the New York Council of Girl Scouts in 2006.
Many of Heide's most satisfying and educational experiences have come from service to others. She received great rewards from her contributions to the concept and launch for the nationally acclaimed non-for-profit athletic and educational organization, the Midnight Basketball League . Heide has worked with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and other organizations over the years and currently serves on the boards of the AAF Foundation, the Association of American Advertising Agencies Foundation and the New York Council of Girl Scouts. | 