Wald, ‘Mad Men’ era headhunter, has died

NEW YORK — Judy Wald, a top headhunter and talent spotter who shaped careers in advertising’s golden era and transformed the industry’s recruiting field, died Feb. 12 in Manhattan. She was 96.

Her death, at a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter, Meryl Norek.

Wald was a formidable Madison Avenue gatekeeper, whether acting as the exclusive representative for many of the field’s biggest and most in-demand stars, or helping new recruits land jobs and maybe become stars themselves. From copywriters to top creative directors, everyone in the industry knew that the path to a new job often ran through her.

“I believe she invented me,” said Jerry Della Femina, who founded his own leading agency and wrote a memoir that was an inspiration for the long-running television series “Mad Men.”

Wald was sometimes compared to the show’s fictional protagonists. She was a stylish, brash and supremely confident entrepreneur at a time when few women wielded executive power on Madison Avenue or anywhere else.

In the 1950s and ’60s, as the ad industry became a cultural force, “it was like Hollywood,” Della Femina said in an interview.

In 1968, four years after she founded the Judy Wald Agency, New York magazine weighed her influence. She was “Neverneverland’s own Tinker-belle,” the magazine wrote, and “the king of the personnel castle, with a host of pinstriped rascals all a-grovel.”

To illustrate the point, the magazine photographed nine leading admen — all leaning on the petite Wald.

“When Judy would move, let’s say, one creative director from a big agency to another, there would be a domino effect felt throughout the world of advertising,” Jane Maas, a former creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, told Ad Age.

Wald was relentless, even ruthless at times, in building her career and guarding her turf. She publicly traded shots with her former boss and top rival recruiter, Jerry Fields; demanded lavish salaries for her stars; and reveled in her kingmaking power.