Alexander Stanley Kroll (born November 23, 1937) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and a retired

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

executive at

Young & Rubicam VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Young & Rubica ...

, where he served as CEO for ten years.

Early life and football

Kroll's father worked in one of

Leechburg, Pennsylvania Leechburg is a borough in southern Armstrong County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh. A population of 2,149 residents live within the borough limits as of the 2020 census, according to US Census Bureau. Leechburg was fo ...

's many steel mills. Growing up, Kroll had a large extended family that served as a support network. He was captain of the football team and ranked second in his class academically, Alex chose to attend

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

on an academic scholarship. He played on Yale's varsity football team, but a physical argument with a young associate professor got Kroll expelled during his sophomore year. He enlisted in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, serving two years in the military police and finished his undergraduate degree at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. While there, he captained the football team and played center on the school's first undefeated football team, making all seven All-American teams in 1961, while leading the team to a 17-1 record in his two seasons and becoming a Henry Rutgers Scholar along the way. Kroll was a 1962 player for the American Football League's New York Titans (later the Jets), playing center and offensive tackle. In the off-season he worked as an advertising trainee with

(Y&R).

Advertising career

Alex Kroll spent his entire business career in advertising at

, where he rose from copywriter in 1963 to CEO in 1985, retiring as Chairman and CEO at the end of 1994. Kroll rose rapidly through the ranks in just his first seven years, becoming Executive Vice-President and Creative Director at the agency in 1970 at the age of 33.Bernice Kanner
"Alex Kroll Plays to Win"
''New York Magazine'', 8 November 1982. During his 10 years as CEO, Y&R's worldwide billings increased times, to $8 billion, and its offices more than doubled, to 331. Under his leadership, Y&R opened the first advertising agencies in Russia and China and built the largest agency network in Central and Eastern Europe. Bravo grew into America's largest Hispanic agency. And, Y&R acquired Landor, the world's leading identity and design company.

Activities

Kroll served as Chairman both for the

American Association of Advertising Agencies The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) is a U.S. trade association for advertising agencies. founded in 1917. It serves over 700+ member agencies across 1,300 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising spend. ...

and the

Advertising Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...

, the organization which produces most of the important

public service advertising A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

in the United States. Under his leadership in 1997, the Council launched an initiative to direct donated media to highlight public causes. Kroll stepped down from Young and Rubicam in 1994, but still kept busy after his retirement, serving as a senior adviser to the Bill Bradley Presidential Exploratory Committee in 1998, which was formed by former U.S. Senate Democrat Bill Bradley of New Jersey. The committee's intent was to explore a presidential candidacy with the

Federal Election Commission The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...

. He developed a program called "Play It Smart", which encourages football coaches to set academic goals for their students. Kroll was featured in the 2009

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

program '' Full Color Football''.

Awards

Kroll is a recipient of the

Horatio Alger Award The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, that was founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphas ...

, the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Silver Medal for Excellence, the

Walter Camp Distinguished American Award The Walter Camp Distinguished American Award is presented by the Walter Camp Football Foundation to an individual who has used his or her talents to attain great success in business, private life or public service and who may have accomplished tha ...

, and the American Jewish Committee's National Human Relations Award. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the

Advertising Hall of Fame The Advertising Hall of Fame, operated by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), began in 1948 as a result of a proposal by the New York Ad Club and its president, Andrew Haire, to the Advertising Federation of America, the predecessor organiza ...

Personal life

On December 23, 1961, Alex Kroll married Phyllis Benford, whose father served as a vice president at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation, in a well-publicized ceremony in Miami Beach, Florida."Wedding, not Runners, Cause Kroll Trouble"
''St. Petersburg Times'', December 24, 1961. The couple has two sons and one daughter, whom they raised in West Redding, Connecticut, before moving to Charlotte, Vermont, years later. They now live next door to their daughter and their two favorite grandchildren.

References