What are the career paths I can advance to from an Account Manager?

You want to go into Management, then you want to kick ass in sales and then you can be a manager.  You want to get into a business of your own, you have to learn about managing.  You want to find out about logistics, you will want to ask your manager or operations person what you need to do for that.  You could try different jobs in all different departments or divisions and then you would be more prepared for your own business or working up to management.

Management of AM or Sales. AM's support sales and the experience from supporting and being involved in the sales cycle and client engagement / retention translates well

is right - it depends on the industry.In the advertising world, Account Manager is usually a step towards higher responsibility in the Accounts department. You can move up to Account Supervisor (where you manage a handful of other account managers) or to head of accounts, where you provide leadership and vision for an entire department of account managers.It’s also possible to transition into more strategic roles. A good agency will rely on it’s account managers to bring strategic business thinking to the table, and it’s possible to pivot on that knowledge.Hope this helps! Account Management can be a lot of fun if you approach it with the right mindset.