Weber Shandwick New York CCO Angela Mears dies at 35

Angela Mears, the New York chief creative officer at Weber Shandwick, died Thursday at the age of 35. 

Mears was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to judge The Andy Awards when she suffered a medical emergency on March 27 and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, according to a memo to staff from Weber Shandwick President Susan Howe. 

“Her loved ones were by her side until the very end,” Howe wrote in the memo.

Howe called the news “incredibly difficult,” and said that Mears’ character was “one of a kind.” 

“A 35-year-old creative wunderkind whose presence and talent belied her age,” Howe said of Mears in the memo. “Whose twin virtues—generosity and fearlessness—were emblematic of her DNA. Whose friendship, kindness and caring came naturally and meant the world to all of us who knew her and loved her.”

In a statement, Gail Heimann, CEO of The Weber Shandwick Collective, described the loss as “devastating and incomprehensible.” 

“Angela was a force of life, a force for ideas, a force for friendship, a fearless woman who has rocked our world, our clients’ worlds and the world at large with her courage, compassion, generosity, wit, full-on genius and pure grace,” Heimann said in the statement. 

Mears joined Weber Shandwick fresh out of Northwestern University in 2011 as an intern and spent the next 11 years working her way to the top. In September 2022 she was named chief creative officer of the agency’s New York office. 

Howe said Mears’ “beautiful, provocative, powerful work” greatly benefited the agency, its clients and its teams. 

Mears had led the agency’s creative teams across the West Coast, Chicago, Europe and New York, with most of her client work found at the intersection of consumer behavior, technology, sustainability and health. She spearheaded creative for clients across industries, including Airbnb, McDonald’s, Ikea, Unilever, Haleon, IBM, ABInBev and Sony. 

“Whether your personality is a ‘yes, and’ or more of a ‘no, but,’ the job is to find ways to make ideas work—not to find reasons why they can’t or won’t,” Mears is quoted as saying on the agency website. 

Mears loved all things food, and if she wasn’t in advertising, would have been a cook, according to a Q&A on the Weber Shandwick website. Her favorite way to unwind was “making elaborate meals and not doing the dishes” and eating what she considered “definitive” food, particularly In-N-Out. 

The memo noted that she also deeply loved her pet dog, Bernie.