SOS welcomes our newest board member

“As part of my journey to make a meaningful difference in the world, I feel called to serve an organization that aligns with my heart, my passions and my desire to build a better tomorrow for future generations. By joining the Board of Directors at SOS Children’s Villages USA, I look forward to advocating for vulnerable children and disadvantaged youth, while scaling our collective impact.” – Laura Maness

As CEO of Havas New York, the North American flagship creative agency of Havas Group and part of the world’s largest entertainment company Vivendi, Laura is responsible for driving a culture of creativity and innovation, creating deeper meaning for some of the most recognized companies in the world. Since taking the helm in New York in early 2016, Laura has been a catalyst for growth, steering an enterprise-wide turnaround and transformation of Havas that earned the agency AdExchanger’s Best Collaborative Agency Team 2020, Ad Age 2019 and 2021 Best Places to Work, Digiday’s Most Innovative Culture and on the shortlist for Campaign’s U.S. Agency Network of the Year 2019.

Laura’s 25-year career spans independent digital pure-players and large integrated ad agencies across several major holding companies (Publicis, WPP, IPG and now Havas) in Chicago, San Francisco and now New York. A proud alum of Loyola University Chicago, where she delivered the 2020 Commencement Address, Laura was recently named Working Mother of the Year by SheRunsIt, Campaign U.S. Female Frontier honoree for Championing Change and Creativepool’s Top 100 Influencer of the Year in the Annual 2020 awards.

In addition to raising consciousness and using business as a force for good as a certified B Corp, Laura ignites meaningful change as a Board Member of 4A’s, ACT Responsible, GNB, Loyola and Alembic. She’s an investor and Village Global advisor to early stage VC-backed companies, a founding member of Kindred, Chief, Casa Cipriani, Spring Place N.Y. and Soho House Chicago, an executive mentor of SheRunsIt and Adweek, and one of the first agency leaders to take 3% Conference's Pledge for Pay Equity. She's also an original signer and Steering Committee member of TIME’S UP™/ADVERTISING and a recognized industry voice speaking at CES, Digiday, S.H.E Summit, USACE Women in Business, Adweek’s #Brandweek, Ad Age’s Remotely Live, Allyship & Action and more.

In her time away from the office, Laura resides in the north end of TriBeCa with her husband and son. She enjoys SoulCycling, Pilates, #5amclub river walks, pop-up shops and bold California reds.

Learn more about our Board of Directors on our website.