World-widening gift takes UNC Hussman student to Spain

By Claire Cusick

Susan Credle ’85, for many years now a towering figure in the New York advertising world, still remembers how lucky she felt to experience that world for the first time — and the gift that enabled that chance.

Credle, who grew up in Chapel Hill and in Greenville, S.C., had always been drawn to New York City. As an advertising major at Carolina, she learned of a school-sponsored trip to attend a three-day professional advertising conference in the city.

It was the first time she saw people presenting how to put together a storyboard, how to work with music houses, how to cast actors. She loved all of it. “It seems so simple now, but at the time, it was magical,” Credle said. “If I hadn’t gone on that trip, I’m not sure I would have ever had my aperture open enough to be stimulated by advertising.”

From there Credle built an award-winning career. She is a New York Women in Communications Matrix Award honoree and was inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Achievement in 2004. The Chicago Advertising Federation named her its Advertising Woman of the Year in 2013. In In 2024, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Clio Award.

She is the person who gave M&M candies faces, limbs and personalities, and led the creative team who turned mayhem into a walking, wrecking character for Allstate insurance.

Credle spent 20-plus years at BBDO before being named chief creative officer of Leo Burnett USA. In 2016, she was named the Global Chief Creative Officer of FCB. Today, she is chair of FCB and is serving as the first Creative Advisor to parent company, Interpublic.

At her alma mater, Credle was the first recipient of UNC Hussman’s Next Generation Leadership Award in 2008 and was inducted into the NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame in 2014. She has served on school’s Board of Advisers and presented its commencement address in 2018.

Credle (left) at the 2024 NC NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame ceremony.

Decades after that formative trip to New York, Credle still marvels at serendipity that allowed her that life-changing experience. She couldn’t afford it. When Credle told her mother that she would miss the trip, her mother remembered something.

“My mom told me that my grandfather had given me some savings bonds when I was born and offered to see how much they were worth. And sure enough, those bonds were enough for me to go to New York. And I like to say, out of the blue, the money found me.”

A few years ago, Credle and her husband Joseph created the Out of the Blue Fund at UNC Hussman so students could explore opportunities outside North Carolina that relate to their career interests.

Having come from France to Chapel Hill for university, Chloé Morand de Jouvencel ’25 already has wide horizons. But in the summer of 2023, the UNC Hussman advertising and public relations major was having difficulty finding an internship in the U.S. that aligned with her professional and educational goals — and that also didn’t violate the conditions of her student visa. She saw the Out of the Blue Fund advertised on the lobby monitors in Carroll Hall and decided to apply. The fund allowed her to pursue a two-month internship at a technology company in Barcelona, Spain. “They were the best weeks I’ve had through Carolina,” she said.

Morand de Jouvencel at Park Güell in Barcelona.

Morand de Jouvencel, who has a science background from high school, is also double minoring in entrepreneurship and business administration. But it was her language skills that she called on during her time working at Testo Industrial Services in Barcelona. She spoke only Spanish to her co-workers but used her native French and English proficiency to help the company in its marketing and advertising to customers throughout Europe. She took classes in Spanish, too, but living in Barcelona for two months allowed her to immerse herself into Spanish culture.

“It really opened my worldview in a different way than visiting as a tourist,” she said. “I talked to locals, I discovered new areas, and I went to social events at my company. I learned about their families, their way of life, when they invited me to dinners. I think really being immersed is what made that experience so special, and what really stood out to me. Being able to be there and see the life made me feel like I could be there in the future and live that life. I could see myself going back there and moving abroad if I could.”

Morand de Jouvencel with her friends abroad. 

The experience also taught Morand de Jouvencel that working while attending classes is an ideal balance for her. She spent the spring 2024 semester completing her minor in entrepreneurship in London, taking a Shakespeare class and doing an internship at the same time.

Morand de Jouvencel said although she sent Credle a note of thanks previously, thinking back on it several months later, she wants Credle to know how grateful she is. “This was truly one of the most special experiences I’ve had,” she said. “I wish it was something that everyone at Carolina could experience.” Even as a European herself, experiencing a different part of Europe was amazing, she said. “It’s never the same as home no matter where you’re from,” she said.

Credle hopes that recipients of the fund will have a world-widening experience like she did, and also like she did, appreciate its impact decades later. “Hopefully they'll feel not only a responsibility, but a desire to give back to the place that afforded them a door that was open,” she said. “That way, we’re building a narrative and a vision. The gift becomes an investment, and the investment continues to pay out. Some of that opportunity will be returned back in the form of more support for the next generation. That’s our hope.”