Ad Executive Is Named Porsche Cars CEO

It isn’t often that the president of an ad agency is named chief executive of a car maker. But on Friday, Brian Bowler, president of the Detroit office of the ad agency DDB Needham, was named president of Porsche Cars of North America.

Bowler, however, says it wasn’t his most recent three years of auto advertising experience at DDB Needham that got him the job, but his 18 years as a sales and marketing executive with Volkswagen and Audi in Great Britain. “I’m not just some ad guy coming in with an advertising fix,” Bowler said.

Bower, 50, would not discuss any plans he has for turning around Porsche, which has seen sales fall over the past year. “It’s facile for me to try to offer a solution to a problem that I don’t even know exists,” Bower said. His new post at Porsche begins Dec. 1.