Marianne Stefanowicz, one of advertising’s top communications executives, is joining Mother in a role that expands her remit to include “community” management as well as comms.

Stefanowicz, who has led communications at Droga5, TBWA and most recently TBWA\Media Arts Lab, quietly started at Mother a few weeks ago in the dual role of chief communications officer and chief community officer for the U.S. In the latter role, she’ll engage people outside the agency—including, at first, its scores of alumni—to broaden Mother’s connections, which should enrich its work.

“In any people-centric business, the community that surrounds it is an important group of constituents,” Stefanowicz told Ad Age. “Even years after they’ve left, people always look back very fondly on their time at Mother. There’s a lot of strength and power in that, that’s not being utilized at the moment. I like connecting people. I’m used to doing it in an internal setting. To do that outside these four walls—it will be interesting to see where it takes us.”

“When you look at our alumni over a 25-year period, you've got individuals that sit on boards of publicly traded companies, you've got CEOs, CMOs, agency founders, Hollywood directors, artists, philanthropists,” said Peter Ravailhe, CEO of Mother U.S., who worked with Stefanowicz years ago at TBWA. “We need to put some intentionality and structure into that, to get the most out of it, and also to show up the best way we can in the community.”

For Stefanowicz, getting back to working at an independent agency, like she did for almost five years at Droga5, was a major draw.

“I like to get my hands on things. I like to be connected at an individual level with folks,” she said. “[At Droga5], we were very good at drawing, not necessarily on alumni, but on the community of people around us. We were very well connected as a group, and we found ways to harness some of that. That’s definitely a good starting point for some of what we're looking to do here.”

Ravailhe added that “Marianne’s track record speaks for itself. What was really important to us were the values, the empathy, the leadership, the ability to contribute beyond her superpower [of comms]. We know she’ll help shape this agency and what it is we can be.”

Mother has been looking at how it operates for a few years now. Last summer, the agency said it was redefining its business around purpose. This included rethinking the pitch process, getting clients to sign pledges committing to a vision, embracing diversity, equity and inclusion, and more. Ravailhe said Stefanowicz’s hire reflects a related commitment at the agency—which was once very insular—to be part of the broader creative community.

“We’ve been sharing our purpose, sharing our mission, sharing our intentions,” he said. “If there's pockets, even if they're tiny pockets, of what we do that can inspire other companies, even direct competitors, we believe that's a good thing—for the people in our industry, and hopefully, for society and creativity at large.”

Stefanowicz will be based in Los Angeles and contribute to all U.S. operations, aligning with Tom Wong, head of comms and culture at Mother London.