Slaven Appointed General Manager, Marketing Services for Mercedes-Benz USA

MONTVALE, N.J., July 26, 2007 -- Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) announced today the appointment of Drew Slaven to the new position of general manager, marketing services for MBUSA, effective immediately.

Reporting to MBUSA's vice president of marketing, Steve Cannon, Slaven will oversee national corporate and retail advertising, media planning and buying, relationship marketing, collateral, and point-of-sale for Mercedes- Benz and Maybach strategies in the United States.

Most recently, Slaven was department manager, marketing communications, at MBUSA, responsible for national advertising development and production and national media planning and buying. In his new position, Slaven will continue to manage MBUSA's marketing agency of record, Merkley + Partners.

Slaven's advertising career spans over a decade, beginning as media planner with DDB Needham Advertising developing media strategies for GTE and American Airlines. After two years he worked for McCann-Erickson Advertising as account supervisor taking care of the advertising of Johnson & Johnson and Ferrero clients. Before joining MBUSA in 2002, Slaven was manager of mass communications at J.P. Morgan Chase responsible for consumer advertising for Chase bank. He holds a master of business administration in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.