Marie Therese Carney or MT Carney is a Scottish-born American

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

executive. She is the founder and CEO of the marketing firm Untitled Worldwide. She is the former President of Marketing for Walt Disney Studios, and also co-founder of Naked Communications and of the British nail salon chain Nails Inc.

Early life

Born in

Dunoon Dunoon (; gd, Dùn Omhain) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in the south of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, Carney studied French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Career

Carney began her career in the media department of

Ogilvy and Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City a ...

in London. After working at London's

Leo Burnett Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett Company, Inc. He was responsible for creating some of advertising's most well-known characters and campaigns of the 20th cent ...

she spent six years as an account planner for the former Ammirati Puris Lintas.

Nails Inc.

In 1999, Carney co-founded British nail salon chain Nails Inc. with Thea Green. On trips to Manhattan, Green and Carney had noticed that soon after landing in the U.S, UK women tended to visit nail salons for quick, inexpensive manicures. After conducting consumer research to confirm consumer demand in Britain, the pair raised £250,000 in private funding and in November 1999 opened their first store on South Molton Street in the West End of London. Soon after they opened four additional stores. The chain has since expanded to 60 locations and is the U.K.'s largest nail salon chain. In 2012 the company recorded sales at £21.7m, and expanded into Brazil, Australia, Mexico and South Africa. In 2001, Carney left Nails Inc. to move to the United States. She began her U.S. career in New York as Worldwide Planning Director for Ogilvy and Mather.

Naked Communications

In 2006, Carney co-founded Naked Communications in America.

Disney

In 2010, Carney took a role as the President of Marketing for Walt Disney Studios, responsible for marketing and distribution for

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...

and

Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...

. While Carney was able to change Disney's marketing approach, she had difficulty as an outsider in Hollywood's creative and marketing communities, and was dogged by rumors that her future with Disney was not secure. In 2012, Carney left Disney in order to spend more time with her children in New York, whom she had regularly flown to see on weekends.

Untitled Worldwide

Carney then founded Untitled Worldwide, a marketing firm based in New York City. She serves as its CEO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carney, M. T. Living people Scottish expatriates in the United States American film studio executives Disney people American marketing people Marketing women Year of birth missing (living people)