Sixteen months after the merger of DDB New York and adam&eveNYC, the combined agency—which moved forward with the adam&eveDDB name—has hired a chief creative officer for the U.S.

Brynna Aylward, who spent the past five years at Gut, takes the newly created role of U.S. CCO, leading creative for adam&eveDDB New York and adam&eveDDB West in San Francisco. The latter office, which has operated as DDB West and DDB California at times over the years, was brought into the adam&eve fold earlier this year.

In New York, Aylward will lead a creative department that includes five executive creative directors: Daniel Bonder, David Brown, Jason Ashlock, Cheryl Horsfall and Paulo Junger. In San Francisco, Aylward will work with two creative directors, Jo Cresswell and Sian Coole, who are helping to run creative there. (On the business side, New York and San Francisco are run by James Rowe and Alexis Coulter, respectively, both managing directors under U.S. CEO Caroline Winterton.)

Aylward will be based in New York. She starts Oct. 14.

Richard Brim, the London-based global CCO of adam&eveDDB—who moved to New York for four months last year to help oversee the transition after the merger—said the time is right to hire a CCO for the region.

“It’s a merger of two very distinct cultures, and that was always going to be quite hard,” Brim said. “We’ve had a year where people are either in or they’re out. Clients are in or they’re out. It feels the right time to go, ‘OK, everything’s settled down. Let’s go.’”

Brim and Winterton both praised Aylward’s knack for team building and being a practitioner, not just an overseer, of the work. Aylward helped build a 60-person team at Gut Toronto—an experience that will come in handy as adam&eveDDB grows in North America.

“The moment we met Brynna, the vibe was spot on,” Winterton said. “Her love of the craft is really important, and she’s been able to build a pretty amazing community of creatives at Gut. Leading as a collective is important for all of us, and Brynna coming in is an amazing ignition point.”

Brim said recent campaigns such as “Smugglers” for Marmite and “The Paralympic Dream” for the International Paralympic Committee show how adam&eveDDB New York is gaining momentum. Aylward, he said, brings the kind of team mentality that will add to that energy.

“I’m so protective of adam&eve,” said Brim, who’s been at the agency since 2013. “I don’t want any role to be about one person. Some of the agencies I really admire—Gut being one of them—it feels like there’s a group mentality. Everyone’s a practitioner. And that’s what we’re about. We’ve taken our time [naming a U.S. CCO], and I’m really chuffed with where we are.”

Before Gut, Aylward spent more than seven years across two stints at Energy BBDO. Now, she said, she’s thrilled to inherit the mantle of creativity at a burgeoning global network (adam&eveDDB also has a Berlin office) with a legacy stretching back to Bill Bernbach’s Creative Revolution of the 1960s.

“It’s an agency with such a challenger spirit from the adam&eve side, and then you have the storied legacy with DDB,” she said. “It’s an incredible opportunity. You can’t say no to a call like that.”