By: Adweek
Kasha Cacy

Kasha Cacy never planned to go into advertising, yet alone drill deeper into the complexities of media. But after landing her first job as an Accenture programmer, she got involved with marketers who were looking for technological change. That path led her to the ad world, and some of the biggest agencies.

In her new global product role at UM (a new title), Cacy’s experience in strategy, analytics and global client management will come in handy as she revamps the agency’s planning and buying tools. But Daryl Lee, UM’s global CEO, says her consulting background is just as critical. “She brings the perfect combination of data and intuition to client problems and has moved media plans from reach and frequency to business outcomes,” he says.

Cacy’s promotion caps seven years at UM, where she was hired to build the U.S. communications planning group. After UM’s 2007 launch of Johnson & Johnson agency J3, she was tapped to lead its business analytics team of researchers, digital execs and econometric modelers. Returning to UM, Cacy quickly proved her new-business chops, leading the successful global pitch for Hershey last year following a U.S. Postal Service win in late 2012.

Her accomplishments aren’t the result of careful career planning. “I’ve always been open to where the road takes me and following things that interested me,” she says. The journey changed after Wunderman recruited her from Accenture, placing her in a strategist role and working with IBM before following the account to Ogilvy. Later, she would move to UM sibling McCann Erickson.

“One of the reasons I haven’t gone back to a creative agency is because there’s so much opportunity to do really creative and interesting things in media,” says Cacy. “I love where it is going and all the things you can do.” —N.O.