FCB has named its Chicago office Chief Creative Officer Andrés Ordóñez the global chief creative officer for the network, effective immediately.

He takes over from Susan Credle, who earlier this week was named creative advisor for FCB’s parent company, Interpublic Group of Cos. Credle will remain with the FCB network—which includes agencies FCB Chicago, FCB New York, FCB Brazil and FCB Canada—as creative chair through 2024 and will work with Ordóñez on a smooth transition, FCB announced.

Ordóñez said Credle did a great job nurturing the FCB brand and creating a culture that attracted top talent. Ordóñez said he plans, alongside Global CEO Tyler Turnbull, to strengthen the global network and continue to prove to clients that creativity is a driver of business growth.

“The clear vision is being a little bit more collective, being a stronger network, and keep doing everything next to Tyler,” Ordóñez said. “We’ve been partnering already for three or four years on different things. Now we get to play harder everywhere.”

Turnbull added that the strength of FCB has always been to allow individual agencies to thrive independently, and said that won’t change.

“Our model at the global level has always been one of supporting our agencies and our leadership teams to help them grow and make the best work of their careers in any way possible,” Turnbull said. “It’s been a big reason why we’ve been able to attract and retain talent like Andrés. Susan taught us very well about [being] never finished. So it’s about what is the next thing? How do we keep growing? How do we keep that ‘never finished’ mentality inside the work and what we do every day?”

Read more: IPG names Susan Credle creative advisor

A search has started for his prior Chicago chief creative officer position, Ordóñez said, noting he will be looking for someone with similar ambition and values, but with a different background than anyone else at FCB. “We know the beauty of diversity. Different backgrounds make us stronger,” he said.

A driver of creativity and growth

A Bogotá, Colombia native, Ordóñez is not only a decorated creative but a driver of growth for the FCB network. Since he joined FCB Chicago in 2019 from Energy BBDO, where he was chief creative officer, that office has added 40 new brands to its client roster, including Danone, Terminix and the United States Postal Service.

Ordóñez was also named lead creative partner for Pfizer last May, which marked one of the agency’s biggest account reviews of last year.

IPG on Thursday reported fourth-quarter organic revenue growth of 1.7%. Though creative agencies continue to be pressured across the industry, IPG reported 2% growth in its integrated advertising and creativity solutions segment, led partially by FCB.

Turnbull said of Ordóñez, “his passion for developing credible client relationships and unleashing creativity to help them drive growth is infectious.”

Ordóñez, who spoke to Ad Age from a client’s office, said pitching is “addictive in a good way. It means that the phone is ringing; that clients believe in the FCB culture, and that we can keep growing.”

For the Pfizer pitch, Ordóñez said he and the other key people on the team showcased how they could help the pharmaceutical giant market itself differently—Pfizer rose to a new level of prominence as one of three main providers of the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots, but as emergency restrictions have eased, the company has looked to shake up its brand marketing. Pfizer has since released several ads marking its 175th anniversary.

“We never went into it to be safe,” Ordóñez said. “We went into it to just do what FCB does and make sure that we understand how creativity can change the business and can change the pharma industry.”

Some of the work he’s led for FCB Chicago includes Cottonelle’s boundary-pushing “Down There Care” campaign; City of Chicago’s “Boards of Change,” which was tied to social justice movements and took home a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2021; and various efforts for Clorox Co. brands including Glad’s “It’s All Glad,” Fresh Step’s “Adopt a Stray” and Clorox’s “Start Clean.”

“For almost a decade, FCB has been building a strong culture across all our agencies,” Credle said in a statement. “To have Andrés take over the role of global CCO ensures that we keep that culture intact while defining the next iteration of the role.”

Ordóñez grew up surrounded by advertising—his mother was an advertising model and his father ran an agency. He started his career at BBDO Puerto Rico and then moved to Zubi Miami, Bravo and then Energy BBDO, which he joined in 2014 as a creative director.