Mat Baxter is departing as global CEO of Huge, two years after taking the helm of the struggling agency and building a plan to reorganize the shop into a creative consultancy with AI capabilities. Lisa De Bonis assumes the global CEO role after serving as Huge’s chief product officer.

Baxter's attempt to transform Huge's business was the subject of Michael Farmer’s 2023 book “Madison Avenue Makeover: The Transformation of Huge and the Redefinition of the Ad Agency Business.”

Huge's parent, Interpublic Group of Cos., declined to comment further on the move and whether there will be a replacement for De Bonis as chief product officer. 

Baxter confirmed he will no longer remain with IPG. One major reason for the move was because doing his job from Australia “simply wasn’t sustainable,” he told Ad Age. While he said he isn’t ready to discuss plans, he said he is looking for an Australia-based role.

De Bonis assumes the post is immediately and will lead Huge’s nearly 1,000 employees, an IPG spokeswoman confirmed. That employee count is down from 1,400 employees Huge cited when it announced it would shift to a fully flexible work model. Some current clients include McDonald’s, M&M’s and Google.

“Huge sits at the intersection of technology and creativity, building digital products that drive growth and transformation for marketers,” IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky said in a statement. “Lisa is a digital-first thinker with deep and global experience in digital marketing, consultancy and creativity, who can build on the company’s positioning as a center for innovation that delivers business results.  Mat has been an important part of IPG for over 14 years, leading a range of organizations, people and capabilities with a great strategic brain and a big heart, and we’re thankful for his contributions.”

IPG’s digital agencies such as R/GA and Huge have been a sore spot for the holding company over the past year, after once being seen as strongholds. In October, Krakowsky listed challenges from the holding company’s digital agencies as being one of the factors influencing its negative performance in the third quarter. In particular, he mentioned that “strong growth” by its media offerings was “largely offset" by challenges within its digital agencies.

Last year, Huge experienced multiple rounds of layoffs. 

“It’s a tough call for IPG, who have publicly noted that their digital agencies are not growing at the speed they would hope,” Greg Paull, principal of R3 said about the move. “As the lines continue to blur between content, creative, and data, it’s becoming increasingly a challenge for a standalone digital agency to define themselves and thrive.”

In previous calls, Krakowsky noted that both Huge and R/GA are in turnarounds. For Huge, this included a repositioning as an AI company. Under Baxter’s leadership, the company built an AI platform called Living Intelligence Value Engine (LIVE), which uses AI to sift through traditional and non-traditional data points to uncover insights for clients. Huge also launched the Creative Capital Index (CCI), an AI-powered tool born out of the data capabilities of LIVE. The CCI is meant to help clients better understand how they deploy creativity within their organization.

Before taking on the CEO at Huge, Baxter was the global CEO role for Initiative for over four years, where he also held a global chairman post.

Prior to joining Huge, De Bonis served as a managing director at Accenture Interactive. During her time there she held multiple leadership roles across the U.K. and Europe. Before Accenture Interactive, De Bonis held several leadership roles at Havas.

This is the latest executive change for Huge, which appointed Katie Klumper as its global client president last year. Klumper is also the founder and president of IPG’s CMO consultancy Black Glass.