Lauren McCracken is the Managing Director, Head of Integrated Media Planning at OMD USA, responsible for ensuring the agency’s 350+ person planning practice community is using data-driven decisioning throughout the media planning process to craft plans that connect with consumers & deliver on business objectives. Lauren is also an active participant in OMD’s Growth Academy, providing BIPOC and Women-Owned organizations with the tools, resources, and insights to empower and elevate their businesses through media and marketing.

With 16+ years’ experience, the last 14 of which at OMD USA, Lauren is an accomplished swiss army knife media professional. Using a people-first approach in both strategy & operations, teams Lauren leads become the blueprint for ""the way things are done,"" attracting highly coveted talent and driving incremental business. Lauren is a recipient of marketing’s most prestigious awards including a Bronze Cannes Lion, Gold & Bronze Clios and AdWeek Media Plan of the Year twice.

What’s more important to Lauren than awards is the culture she creates and the lasting feeling she leaves people with. Within the agency, Lauren works to meaningfully change & improve work cultures so that they are more inclusive & supportive of employee’s whole selves. And as a working mom who’s actively chosen to stay in the game, she hopes to pave the way for more women and moms to rise to the leadership ranks they are more than capable of holding.