No commercial breaks. (B.E. Corporate Executive Of The Year).

"ONE LOOK AT ME AND YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE THE BOUNDARIES I'VE HAD TO negotiate, the challenges I've had to traverse," said Renetta McCann during a ceremony honoring her as the 2002 Advertising Woman of the Year. McCann was chosen in June by the Women's Advertising Club of Chicago, an 81-year-old association that advocates for women professionals in the field.

"Such are the trials of being a short person," said McCann before an audience of peers, journalists, friends, and family gathered for a luncheon at The Drake hotel in downtown Chicago. Many burst into laughter, some shaking their heads amusingly. McCann smiled.

Standing at 5 feet, she is short--"a respectable 60 inches," asserts the 44-year-old executive. But because McCann's huge reputation precedes her, height is just one aspect of her physicality that's surprising. The other two are race and gender. McCann is an African American woman and CEO of Starcom North America, one of the largest media companies in North America.

Starcom, which launched in 1999 under McCann's leadership, maintains contracts with leading companies including Hallmark Polaroid, McDonald's, Sara Lee, and Showtime Networks.

"Renetta was one of the architects behind Starcom's remarkable performance in 2001 and in 2000," says Jack Feuer of the industry trade magazine Adweek. "She has a great deal of influence over how the process of media planning and buying is conducted today and how it will be conducted in the future." McCann's efforts have contributed to two consecutive years of 20% growth for Starcom North America, and she has doubled her staff to more than 600 employees. Boasting $4.6 billion in billings, the company recently snagged the Walt Disney World account worth $600 million, thanks to McCann. Under her leadership, the company has developed a number of technological initiatives to further business strategy. They include Web-based communication tools that allow real-time data comparisons with clients and optimizers. McCann's company has also invested in proprietary research to better understand how customers are connected to the media.

McCann sits on several boards including the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and she is the media policy chair for the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Her strides speak volumes to her excellence in advertising as a media strategist, company head, and industry leader. This is why BLACK ENTERPRISE chose McCann as our 2002 Corporate Executive of the Year.

"Boundaries, what boundaries?" McCann says at The Drake. "Pretend they don't exist. That's right, just ignore them."

McCann, who grew up the oldest of five children on the South Side of Chicago (where she still resides), had to ignore a lot. Like the time when, as a senior executive at Leo Burnett advertising agency handling a multimillion-dollar account, a publisher marveled at how articulate she was. "I was 18 years in on a particular account," McCann recalls. "Now I'm 23 years in, and still when I show up, people don't expect me to be me."

Even if they haven't laid eyes on McCann, clients expect a sharp, no-nonsense media strategist and an efficient manager of resources and people. "She is a brilliant media professional," says Jack Klues, head of Starcom MediaVest Group, the holding company for Starcom Media. (The French media company Publicis recently bought both companies.) "Renetta is a tremendous manager of human resources. She also has an eye for rising stars and anticipates problems and can offer solutions before they become insurmountable.

"When you get into a management position of the magnitude of Starcom North America, you just don't realize how much each one of your days is about putting out fires," says Klues. "And they come at you fast and furious without warning, and it comes down to your ability to juggle multiple problems. A lot of people are jugglers, but what sets Renetta apart is that she can come at problem 25 with the same unflappable nature and same style she does with problem number one."

In one instance, a servicing issue with a client looked as if it might cost the company the account. "I literally dropped everything, asked if I could come see them and find out what they weren't getting, what they needed, and then went back to being an extreme advocate to make sure they got what they wanted."

Mary Martin-Jarnegan has known McCann for almost 25 years and has worked as her executive assistant since January 2001. "She's always straight to the point," Martin-Jarnegan offers. "And with all the pressures, I've never seen her express anger."

"Oh she knows when I'm angry," McCann says later on over lunch. "But I really do think it's my responsibility to control myself, I'm really focused on solving the problem. If I'm losing my cool, that rarely solves any problem. Not to say that I don't feel any emotion, but OK, a white woman just dissed me by calling me articulate, but I'm going to put that right over here for a minute because I need to make her understand that if she wants my money, this is what she has to do."

We dine at one of McCann's favorite local restaurants, Smith & Wollensky, where on most occasions McCann will order a hamburger. "It's my favorite food, and these guys do a great job. Hamburgers are easy to mess up," she muses. "They're harder to prepare than people think." Our discussions range from film--she thinks The Godfather offers the greatest lessons about business--to French aristocracy--Marie Antoinette, she says, was terribly misunderstood. "I don't think she ever said, `Let them eat cake.' Her real downfall is that she was clueless. She didn't read the signs that were around her."

It's easy to see that McCann deciphers the world a little differently. And it's her unique and unrestricted perspective that contributes to her business successes. "I didn't set out to be a CEO," she says. "In fact, when I started in this business, it wasn't an option. Years ago the media department was just that--a department within an advertising agency." Leo Burnett is the agency where McCann got her start. In 1978 she worked as a media assistant in the company's training program and as a media supervisor in 1982. In 1989 she was promoted to media director, and over the next 10 years she handled a variety of clients including Sony, Keebler, McDonald's, and Dewar's. As managing director, McCann was making new business pitches every 18 months to two years and winning all of them.

"In 1993 I had five different clients and that's when I learned to balance different client needs. When you're spread that thin, you find a way to connect with each client even if you didn't have all the time to spend with them." She became senior vice president in 1995. In 1999 the industry started to change, and so did McCann's career path.

Executives at Leo Burnett realized that the media department, which had always driven profits for ad agencies, would also become the driver of strategy. As a result, Starcom Global was formed. "Media has become predominant in the strategic process by which advertisers communicate to their customers because of fragmentation, consolidation, and the rapid pace of technology," explains Feuer. "It has taken on a new urgency." It was a reluctant decision, but it was strategically critical for a separate media company to be formed to tackle the market trends.

There would be other benefits. "By spinning off, it allowed us to develop our talent [instead of waiting for management's approval] and have greater influence over how we manage and protect it. I know my people. I know their capabilities."

McCann was chosen as managing director and then Leo Burnett merged with D'Arcy. As managing director, however, she was also aligned with three other VP's whose structure in authority gave them parity, although she had the bigger title. "Going from media director to managing director was a big leap," McCann explains. As media director she could strongly advocate for those to whom she had a direct connection--her clients and her employees. "But as managing director, I represented the voice of the company. I had an obligation to balance the needs of the company against those of a client or any specific media piece. They were probably hedging their bets." It was a low-risk proposition. If she failed, they had three others who could easily replace her.

"I had to perform extremely well. And on that level, the politics sort of explode. I'm sitting there going, `I've got this title. I should by all rights have these responsibilities, and I've got these three people keeping me in check' I just kept doing the work The reason people fail at this is because they let others into their head. At this level, everybody's got an agenda. A friend on Monday is a foe on Tuesday. I don't let anybody mess with my head."

Performance is a given. McCann credits her objectivity and conflict resolution skills with landing her the title of CEO in 1999. "I'm very comfortable between rocks and hard places, making sure we don't get crushed." Feuer describes McCann as a media thinker by nature, which, he says, is a prerequisite for a media network leader. "She thinks of media as a solution to business problems. She has a very deliberate and strategic approach."

For most industries, 2001-2002 offered little growth. Total U.S. ad spending dropped 9.8% in 2001. That year, however, McCann reeled in Disney, a significant conquest by advertising standards.

In the final stages, Starcom beat out a challenger, boasting bigger and wider communication distributions. "In the six-month process that I've gotten to know Renetta, she has a no-nonsense reliability that's reassuring," says Matt Ryan, senior vice president of corporate brand management for Disney. "It came down to their track record, their reputation, and their smarts."

McCann led the pitch. "We were able to take the clues that they gave us and put it into a story that was coherent for them as a company. Everybody talks about the Disney account as if it is one thing, but we picked up 16 pieces of business [with Disney]. The key of the presentation was saying something that was true for the overall company but also resonated with each of the Disney products."

A big disappointment this year was losing the bid on the $600 million Sony account and not retaining Maytag.

Back in the Leo Burnett building, McCann has several calls to return. Business style is casual and informal. McCann is in a linen pantsuit with sandals. Her office is actually a large cubicle set in a row of four executive spaces, including that of Klues. Their open door policy is having no doors.

McCann's office overlooks the Chicago business district and is reflective of her eccentric tastes. There's an African mask and needlepoint pillows handmade by McCann. Needlepoint, crocheting, knitting, and constructing miniature dollhouses are among McCann's hobbies. During downtime, she thrives on tedious, intricate tasks. There's a small collection of Barbie dolls; images from The Wizard of Oz, one of her favorite movies; the movie poster of How Stella Got Her Groove Back--Angela Bassett serves as her workout inspiration; and a framed quilt of Dancing at the Louvre by her favorite artist Faith Ringgold.

There are also photos of McCann's children, Ella, 12, and Alexander, 10. McCann has known her husband, Kevin, a former ad executive turned "Mr. Mom," for 30 years. They've been married for 18. On the ground is a gift illustrative of how many view McCann. In a drawing, she is standing on top of a globe balancing the family in one hand and flexing a barbell in the other. She's wearing Mickey Mouse ears, although she is partial to Minnie. "She's a rock star," McCann laughs.

Also on her wall is a framed 1999 Advertising Age article titled, "Burnett Executive Paves the Way for African Americans." Celebrating McCann's many achievements, it also highlights the most imposing barriers preventing minorities from corporate advancement:

* Lack of an influential mentor.

* Lack of informal networking with influential colleagues.

* Lack of role models of the same ethnicity and/or gender.

* Lack of visibility on projects.

McCann identifies with all of them. "There was no road map in front of me. Over time I had to figure out how to build informal support networks of people who were willing to share information. To a large degree a lot of my support came because I always did my best."

McCann received what she calls mentoring by proof. "My white counterparts [would receive support] based on going to the same school or coming from the same town. [That] was mentoring by faith."

But McCann believes all the struggles have been significant learning experiences.

"Whatever I learned about people's prejudices or behavior has served me extremely well. Some of my peers are mortified because they want to be liked and be members of the club. Well, I've had to exist by not being a member."

After 24 years into her career, McCann is liked, admired, and respected by many in her field. "It was amazing to see the range of people who nominated her--young people, older people, colleagues, as well as people who had previously worked for her t and currently do," says Jennifer Fondrevay, head of the Women's Advertising Club of Chicago. "Even when I called the other four finalists to tell them who had won, their response was, `Oh well, of course.'"

Having championed an arduous climb and ascribing to a Godfather business playbook begs the question: Where are the bodies? "I think you have to be ruthless," she concedes, "but in my career I've been ruthless about doing my job really well and figuring out what it takes to produce excellent products for clients. I've also been ruthless about getting where I am by not standing on the backs of others," McCann explains.

"Being a black woman--and remember for most of the time it was only me--I'm not sure I would have ever been allowed to develop a style that had me leave too many dead bodies. It's sort of not an option." Though she is hardly the pacifist, McCann admits that she is determined, opinionated, and stubborn. "Don't stand in my way," she laughs. "If I'm coming down the street in a hummer, I'll at least honk the horn. I'm just pretty clear I have somewhere to go, and I think for most people, as a self-preservation mechanism, will get out of my way.

"Know your enemies well," she asserts. "That's what I've learned from Don [Corleone of The Godfather]. I've got my own weapons. I just don't necessarily shoot first."

name Renetta McCann

age 44

title CEO Starcom North America

original career goals Law, PR

degree B.A. in speech, Northwestern University 

hobbies Needlepoint, crocheting, knitting, making miniature dollhouses

favorite destinations San Diego, Arizona. "I like sunny, arid places."

favorite books The Little Prince, novels, mysteries. She owns everything by Walter Mosley.

favorite advertising campaign "Absolut vodka. I like the way they've established the brand as an icon."

biggest professional accomplishment "To be recognized as a leader in my industry."

proud personal achievement "Wherever I've been in my career, I've essentially been the same person."

what's next "I want to make sure there are others in the pipeline who follow me. It's not about the next promotion it's where I can contribute next."