Cathey Finlon, majority shareholder in McClain Finlon Advertising, said Monday she is selling her ownership in the Denver agency to the firm’s president, Paul Leroue, effective July 1.
The 62-year-old chairwoman and chief executive bought a minority stake in the firm in 1985 and took outright ownership in 1988.
Finlon said she’s ready for a change.
“It’s a good time for it, where the agency will head into a real growth mode and it’s time for new leadership to step in,” she said. “Frankly, I’m ready to do interesting new things.”
Those new things include learning how to weld and planning trips to Patagonia and Laos.
McClain Finlon is the largest independently owned agency in the Rocky Mountain West.
Leroue, who has been with the firm as president since 2007, said he has some new ideas, including offering marketing consulting services to provide additional revenue outside of the agency’s core services.
“The idea is to be able to — the agency is an ebb-and-flow business — make it more consistent over time,” Leroue said.
Clients of the firm have included Vail, State Farm, Johns Manville and the Denver Zoo. This spring, the agency lost major client Qwest to a Chicago- based agency, forcing cutbacks at the firm.
Finlon will be an agency investor and chairman of the board.
Alex McCarthy: 303-954-1381 or amccarthy@denverpost.com
