MUMBAI: Young & Rubicam former chairman and CEO, Edward N Ney, breathed his last on 8 January at 88 years old.

He had joined the company as a young account manager in 1951 and worked his way up to preside over the company as CEO from 1970 till 1986.

The industry attributes him for creating the agency’s integrated “whole egg” strategy which was later followed by others. In a press statement, WPP Group’s global CEO Martin Sorrell said that Ney “understood, probably more than anyone else, both the power of agency brands and, at the same time, the paradoxical need to bring them together... He understood it all and saw it sooner than most."

Besides his work at Y&R, Ney was politically active as well. He became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1974. In 1989, President George HW Bush nominated him as the United States Ambassador to Canada. He served in Ottawa until June 1992.

After his time as the ambassador, Ney returned to the agency as chairman.

Ney is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.