Until October of 2015, Ms. Michelotti was Executive Vice-President and Chief Legal, Government, Corporate Affairs Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide, operating in more than 80 countries, working with multinational brands around the world, and part of the Publicis network of communication companies. After a long and successful career Carla recently retired from this position, and is currently providing strategic consulting advice, as president of Carla Michelotti LLC.
Carla has a distinguished record of business leadership, international strategic marketing insight, and global legal expertise. She is a “C” Suite executive helping multinational corporations anticipate and successfully navigate sensitive and significant challenges, including management of “bet the company” domestic and international litigation. Her strong experience in digital issues, intellectual property, privacy, complex litigation, and multi‐cultural mergers and acquisitions place her as one of the foremost authorities on all aspects of global legal issues pertaining to marketing, branding, advertising, intellectual property, and commercial communications. Carla is a key industry strategist. She has played an exceptional role in developing advocacy strategy for the advertising industry. She is frequently invited to speak before government and industry leadership on legal and business topics related to all aspects of marketing, including privacy, advertising and marketing regulation, regulatory threats, and e‐commerce.
At the outset of the digital age, Carla was first to meet with the White House, and EU leadership to address the legal issues hindering internet marketing. She was also first to organize a global summit of advertising industry executives to discuss global self‐regulation and the regulatory issues precipitated by cross‐border advertising. Most recently, Carla helped coordinate Chinese support for advertising Self-regulation. Today Carla is recognized for her expertise on privacy and consumer marketing issues, as well as for her pragmatic business acumen. She is instrumental in the creation of industry policies regarding commercial free speech; privacy; food and beverage advertising; intellectual property; digital issues on the internet; contracts; and advertising regulation.
Ms. Michelotti has received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious American Advertising Federation (AAF) Barton A. Cummings Gold Medal and the Chicago Advertising Federation Silver Medal for lifetime achievement, as well as being honored as the Chicago Ad Woman of the Year. She has received the International Advertising Association (IAA) Medal of Achievement and the IAA “Champion” Award. Carla received the Anti‐Defamation League’s Women of Achievement Award; the Chicago Catholic Lawyer of the Year Award; the Justinian Bar Association Award of Excellence; the DePaul Outstanding Service to the Profession Award; and as well as being recognized with a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree from DePaul University. She was also named to the Today’s Chicago Woman Hall of Fame.
Ms. Michelotti is on the Boards of the AAF; the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council in the USA; the European Advertising Standards Authority; the IAA; the Illinois Bar Foundation; Athena International; The Chicago Network; Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana; Junior Achievement of Chicago; and The House of the Good Shepherd. Carla is also a Trustee of DePaul University, where she chairs the Trusteeship Committee; a Global VP of the IAA; and is Vice‐chairman of the Marketing Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business. She is a proud past Chairman of the AAF, an Illinois and American Bar Fellow, and an active member of The Economic Club of Chicago, and the Chicago and Justinian Bar Associations.
Before joining Leo Burnett Company, Carla was Associate Co