MullenLowe West shakeup—new president named and creative leaders exit

Major executive changes are underway at MullenLowe West as the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency installs a new president and seeks a new top creative team. The shifts mark one of the first big moves made by MullenLowe U.S. CEO Frank Cartagena, who took on the role in November. Jenn Wong has been appointed president of the West region, which consists of MullenLowe’s Los Angeles office, after most recently serving as the head of global brand marketing at SoundCloud. Wong has also held lead marketing roles at Curaleaf, Beats by Dre and Gap, and worked at agencies including TBWA\Chiat\Day and Wieden+Kennedy. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here She replaces Javier Passerieu, who had been promoted to the role from managing director in September of last year. Passerieu did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, the office’s two executive creative directors, Carlos Alija and Laura Sampedro, resigned and will depart in May “to ensure a smooth transition,” said Sampedro. The search for a new creative leader is ongoing and Cartagena will fill those roles as needed in the interim. Wong was hired to help the Los Angeles office become more of a “modern marketer” for its clients, said Cartagena. While the agency has strong capabilities in PR and design, Cartagena is hoping to work more on social and digital offerings for clients for the office, which he felt had “pigeonholed” itself into doing more TV advertising. “I saw us in danger of becoming one-dimensional, and that’s the worst place to be,” Cartagena said. “The reason I brought Jenn in is because she speaks two languages. She speaks client and she speaks agency. So she’s going to be able to come in with both perspectives … and help dive in with me to create a situation for our current clients and future clients that brings the best possible creative solution to their business problem that's beyond TV, and we do TV really well.” Cartagena said the goal isn’t just to do more digital work but also to explore experiential and AI solutions. He pointed to MullenLowe’s recent campaign for Change the Ref which utilized AI to create deepfake voices of gun victims, as an example of the type of modern work he wants the agency to put out. “One area that I’m looking towards is how we tackle some of the innovations that are happening right now,” Cartagena said. “That’s my next order of business is how do we use AI to optimize, and I don’t mean optimize operationally,” he said. Rather the focus is on, “How do we use AI to help us out with ideas or help us make the best creative ideas in the industry?” In the U.S. MullenLowe also has offices in Boston (its largest office) and New York (its third largest behind Los Angeles) The U.S. network overall has about 400 employees. MullenLowe West clients include Acura, Corona, Grey Goose, Patron, Hawaiian Airlines and Ghirardelli ,which it won in December. The Ghirardelli win is part of an ongoing strategy to have both offices involved in more pitches. Previously “[MullenLowe West] focused on solidifying the clients that we had, making sure they were happy and making sure that they were growing organically so while there hasn't been an external growth our clients have grown internally,” said Cartagena. “Now we're in phase two and we're actively pitching from both regions.” While the East and West regions will remain as is, Cartagena is also looking to have the different offices work closer together in the future. “What I don’t want to do is change any of the culture” between the offices, Cartagena said. “What I want to do is open up for clients the ability to pull the good that’s happening in all the different offices and flex up and down for them and really use our full offering. It's not for everybody at all times, but more so when they need it.” MullenLowe East’s president is Jordan Muse, the son of advertising legend Jo Muse, who led the multicultural marketing movement. Between Cartagena, Wong, and Muse, MullenLowe’s U.S. executive team has become significantly more diverse in a short amount of time. Cartagena touted MullenLowe West’s diversity and highlighted its multicultural work for Corona as an example of the “diversity of thought” the office has available. Also read: Remembering Joe Muse

MullenLowe West shakeup—new president named and creative leaders exit

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