#78: BarkleyOKRP's Katy Hornaday on creative leadership, PE backing and integration
Jul 27, 2026 · 27 min · 14 segments
**Welcome to Agency Business.** **Katy Hornaday,** CEO of independent, private-equity backed agency, BarkleyOKRP, joins…
Jul 27, 2026 · 27 min · 14 segments
**Welcome to Agency Business.** **Katy Hornaday,** CEO of independent, private-equity backed agency, BarkleyOKRP, joins…
Katy HornadayGuest
Brian WieserHost
Olivia MorleyHost
I thought the Adweek headline that they picked up on was certainly one of the themes that no longer AI losers.
But the thing that stood out to me was the fact that Havas is now a 2% shareholder in Louis Hachette Group.
All this confidence in your business and you're going to reinvest in another Bellori group, which investors could very well choose to invest in on their own.
Just editorial comment on this is that if I see a company either doing buybacks or making investment like this, it communicates to me, you can't think of a better place to put it into your own business to drive more growth in the future.
Just directing our listeners to our conversation with Mark Penn, which we hit on, Brian hits on that exact point.
What does that mean in context, given that they're rising at other whole costs?
Yeah, I mean, but it's safe to say that Havas, although known historically for some novel trading strategies that were maybe picked up in K2's report a decade ago, I think it's safe to say that any non-transparent activity that they're doing is not recorded as revenue in the first place.
But it is interesting to the extent that their pass-through costs probably do represent production or something else.
I think there's a story there that wasn't maybe captured in the earnings call, because it is interesting.
Normally, it should at least be flatter up or in line, or it's possible there's something unusual.
I thought the Adweek headline that they picked up on was certainly one of the themes that no longer AI losers.
But the thing that stood out to me was the fact that Havas is now a 2% shareholder in Louis Hachette Group.
All this confidence in your business and you're going to reinvest in another Bellori group, which investors could very well choose to invest in on their own.
Just editorial comment on this is that if I see a company either doing buybacks or making investment like this, it communicates to me, you can't think of a better place to put it into your own business to drive more growth in the future.
Just directing our listeners to our conversation with Mark Penn, which we hit on, Brian hits on that exact point.
What does that mean in context, given that they're rising at other whole costs?
Yeah, I mean, but it's safe to say that Havas, although known historically for some novel trading strategies that were maybe picked up in K2's report a decade ago, I think it's safe to say that any non-transparent activity that they're doing is not recorded as revenue in the first place.
But it is interesting to the extent that their pass-through costs probably do represent production or something else.
I think there's a story there that wasn't maybe captured in the earnings call, because it is interesting.
Normally, it should at least be flatter up or in line, or it's possible there's something unusual.
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