David Sable

David Sable is Global Chief Executive Officer of Y&R. Named to the post in February 2011, David has long had Y&R in his blood. He first joined as a trainee in 1976 and credits his start here for both his passion for the business as well as his core skills.

After Y&R, David worked at Wells Rich Greene and then moved to Israel, where he co-founded an agency, Mimsar. That start-up was a pioneering entry into the high-tech arena and reinforced David’s entrepreneurial spirit. Coming back to the U.S., David found his home at the extended Y&R family, working for Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. In 1990, he returned to Y&R Advertising to lead the international portion of the agency’s Colgate-Palmolive account. He then helped create Y&R’s team approach on the U.S. Postal Service’s consolidated account, before leaving to pioneer an omni-channel startup in the U.S., Genesis Direct. In 2000, he moved to Wunderman, also part of the Y&R family, where he spent 10 years, ultimately as its Vice Chairman, before returning home to Y&R.

David is active in the industry as Chair of the Advertising Council’s Board of Directors and, for many years before, a Director-at-Large of the 4As.The 4As just named him one of the 100 People Who Make Advertising Great. He has served as Jury President at Cannes three times, as head of the Direct, Creative Effectiveness and Creative Data juries and was a member of the Titanium jury.

A prolific writer, David has a strong online presence. LinkedIn named him one of their Top Voices 2016, and he has consistently ranked as one of their most widely read global business leaders since he was invited to the Influencer platform. He has been blogging The Weekly Ramble since 2006 and is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post. He also was an Executive Producer on MTV’s highly acclaimed REBEL MUSIC series.

In 2013, Fast Company named David one of the 10 Most Generous Marketing Geniuses. He serves on the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s National Board and was the founding chair of their NY Board. He serves on NY’s Volunteer State Office of National and Community Service Commission and served 14 years on the NY Cultural Advisory Committee. He sits on the Boards of UNCF and the Christopher Reeve Foundation and is deeply involved with the Special Olympics. He also is a member of American Eagle Outfitters’ Board of Directors.

David and his wife, Debbie, have two daughters. two sons-in-law, four treasured grandchildren — Henry, Teddy and Gemma, and Goldy.