Ayer Names CEO Siano as Chairman

NW Ayer, the New York ad agency still living in the shadow of its failed Burger King campaign and its loss of the $200-million account, named a new chairman.

Jerry J. Siano, 54, the agency’s president and chief executive, will also become chairman of the publicly held agency at the end of the year. He replaces Louis T. Hagopian, 64, who will retire as chairman. Hagopian had been chief executive since 1976, until Siano was named to that post last spring.

Siano is the first Ayer chief executive to come up through the creative ranks. He started at the agency in 1956 and held jobs as worldwide creative director, head of the New York office and head of U.S operations before becoming president and chief executive this year.