Mary Wells Lawrence

Mary Georgene Wells Lawrence (née Berg; May 25, 1928 – May 11, 2024) was an American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, Beginning in 1946, she studied for two years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and met industrial design student Burt Wells.

Wells Lawrence was behind the Benson and Hedges marketing campaign in the late 1960s which increased the sales of Benson and Hedges from 1 billion cigarettes in 1966 to 14 billion cigarettes in 1970.

By 1969, she was reported to be the highest-paid executive in advertising. She was selected by U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to be a member of his Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, and was also invited by U.S. President Gerald Ford to represent business at an Economic Summit in Washington, D.C.

After Wells Lawrence stepped down as CEO in 1990, the agency was sold to Boulet Dru Dupuy Petit, and became known as Wells Rich Greene BDDP.

Personal life and death Wells Lawrence had two daughters with Bert Wells, Pamela and Kathryn. She divorced Bert a second time in 1965, and married former Braniff International Airways president Harding Lawrence on November 25, 1967. Named the 1971 Advertising Woman of the Year by the American Advertising Federation.