Mani Ayer, the ad legend, passed away on February 8, 2010 at the age 75.He is regarded as the man who laid the foundation of Ogilvy and Mather. Ayer joined D J Keymer’s in 1950. Its ownership changed and its name became BOMAS and then S H Benson. Later it became Ogilvy, Benson and Mather after David Ogilvy absorbed Benson’s. He spent 36 years in Ogilvy and Mather, India. He was 38 when he took on the role of MD at Ogilvy, India. The collapse of Kersy Katrak’s MCM took when Ayer took over.Ranjan Kapur took over from Ayer in 1994. Piyush Pandey is Kapur’s successor. Ayer put in place the four pillars of the agency — Ranjan, Roda Mehta (media), Suresh Mullick (creative) and Piyush Pandey. Suresh Mullick passed away in 2003. That set them going for a long time to come. In the 1990s, many senior ad people sold the stakes to International networks.Ayer was too principled to do it. He retired when he turned 60 in 1993 and stayed away at Chennai. Ayer brought a high level strategic thinking and business orientation to the advertising process.