Kevin Roberts Honored By Citizens For NYC

KEVIN ROBERTS, CEO WORLDWIDE OF SAATCHI & SAATCHI
HONORED BY CITIZENS FOR NYC

Mike Wallace to Emcee

NEW YORK, NY April 12 — Actor and director Christopher Reeve will present, via video, Citizens for NYC’s New Yorker for New York Award to his friend Kevin Roberts, the New York-based CEO Worldwide of ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi. The award will be presented at the nonprofit Citizens for NYC’s annual New Yorker for New York Awards dinner on Wednesday, April 14, 2004, at the Waldorf=Astoria.

This year’s dinner will also pay tribute to renowned newsman Walter Cronkite, Northeast President for Bank of America Anne Finucane, First Lady of the United Nations Nane Annan, journalist and author Kati Marton, and Executive Director of The Studio Museum in Harlem Lowery Stokes Sims. The Dunton Block & Civic Association and entrepreneur Nadia Campbell will receive awards for community leadership. Mike Wallace, of 60 Minutes fame, will host the event.

Mr. Roberts, a world marketing leader, is revolutionizing the advertising industry with his concept “Lovemarks,” which he defines as the combination of respect and emotion inspired in consumers by certain strong brands. His soon-to-be published book Lovemarks: the future beyond brands brings to life a new vision for business and marketing, and defines the relationship between brands and consumers in terms of emotional connections.

Throughout his career, Roberts has developed ground-breaking marketing ideas for companies including Mary Quant, Gillette, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi-Cola. P&G, as one of Saatchi & Saatchi’s key clients along with General Mills and Toyota, continues to benefit from Roberts’ iconoclastic leadership in the ideas business.

“I have never met a global consumer,” says Roberts. “Everything starts in the local. The work of the Citizens for NYC to build stronger neighborhoods is as important to the economy as it is to our spirit. I admire the work of this organization and I am proud to accept this award.”

Mr. Roberts is inaugural CEO in Residence at the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University’s business school in the UK. He is Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and the University of Limerick in Ireland. In addition, he serves as a trustee of Turn Your Life Around, an Auckland, New Zealand, charity that mentors at-risk youth. All of Kevin Roberts’ work, both in his formidable professional career and in his outstanding service to the communities where he makes his homes, is guided by the principle that emotional connections and inspirational individuals can change the world.

“It is a Citizens for NYC tradition to honor those who contribute to the enrichment and vitality of New York City,” said Henry Cornell, Chairman of Citizens for NYC and a partner at Goldman Sachs. “Kevin Roberts and the Saatchi & Saatchi family exemplify the spirit of public service that is at Citizens for NYC’s core.”

Co-chairing the event are Mike Burns and Scott Gilbert, co-CEOs of Saatchi & Saatchi NY, Steven Rattner, Managing Principle of Quadrangle Group LLC and Maureen White, DNC National Finance Chair.

Also presenting awards that night will be Schuyler Chapin, former Commissioner of New York City's Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York City Police Department, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frances FitzGerald and Osborn Elliott, former Chairman and Editor-in Chief of Newsweek and Founding Chairman of Citizens for NYC.

The New Yorker for New York Awards dinner, held annually since 1977, raises funds each year for Citizens for NYC, a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 as the Citizens Committee for New York City. Citizens for NYC mobilizes New Yorkers to improve their neighborhoods in the areas of Urban Environment, Beautification, Safety, Poverty, Youth Service and Entrepreneurship, and Neighborhood Diversity, providing small grants, workshops, information and assistance to more than 12,000 grassroots volunteer groups throughout the city’s five boroughs.

ENDS

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