TBWA hires Johannes Leonardo CEO to lead its New York office

TBWA\Chiat\Day has appointed Johannes Leonardo CEO Emily Wilcox to lead its New York office. Wilcox will become CEO at the Omnicom Group agency in April, succeeding Nancy Reyes, who recently took on a role as BBDO’s Americas CEO. New York is TBWA’s largest office with over 450 employees and large clients such as Nissan and Hilton. Wilcox is the first big hire under Erin Riley, who was appointed TBWA\Chiat\Day’s first-ever U.S. CEO in November. Riley said she was looking for an executive from an independent creative agency. “It was quite important to us to have someone that would come out of a slightly more pure creative environment because it's very aligned with our priority at the moment,” Riley said. Ad Age Leading Women Luncheon Join us Aug. 7 in New York as we recognize this year’s honorees Buy your ticket today Riley said TBWA’s New York and Los Angeles offices grew in different ways last year—New York saw more organic growth from existing clients, whereas Los Angeles took on more new business. The goal is for the New York team to win more new business in the new year under Wilcox. “More clients than ever are leaning back into understanding the power of brand and getting away from thinking that the answer is in programmatic, digital, and analytics,” Wilcox said. “Yes, that's a part of it, but fundamentally, understanding how to connect with human beings and tell stories that matter to them [is important] to get them to consider and act on behalf of your brand.” Riley is also looking for Wilcox to help the New York office elevate the consistency of its creative output by incorporating more of its specialty offerings to become the “most well-rounded” agency within the network. TBWA’s North America offices, including TBWA\Media Arts Lab, are all now female-led, Riley noted. “We are descendants of Lee Clow, and he would famously say 'good is not good enough,’” Riley said. “We start from a place of no matter how good last year was, [the creative work] should be better. Are we happy with the work? Certainly. But could we have more of it? Absolutely. Could it be even more disruptive? Could it be even more culturally relevant? Of course. We’ve got an insatiable appetite, and that’s very much the ambition in New York.” Some of the agency’s creative highlights from last year include Hilton’s 10-minute TikTok ad and TBWA and Nissan’s 4-hour “LoFi Girl” inspired video on YouTube. Wilcox’s JL tenure Wilcox had been with JL for more than eight years. She joined the agency as head of account management before becoming managing director in 2021. During her time leading the account team, Wilcox helped win and manage work across clients such as Kraft Heinz, Danone, Volkswagen, MassMutual, Gap, Amazon, EA Sports, Uber, Instagram and Google. She assumed the chief executive role at JL in May, shortly after President Bryan Yasko departed and soon after joined Accenture Song. While her stint as CEO was relatively short, Johannes Leonardo’s co-founders and creative chairs Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico credited Wilcox in a joint statement with leading the agency to its best year in 2023, in terms of record organic growth and record top-line revenue. The agency executed its first-ever Super Bowl ad this year, for Volkswagen. “Emily has been with Johannes Leonardo for over half our agency’s life. It’s been an incredible run. She has not only played an indelible role in who we are today but also, we sense, well into our future,” Jacobs and Premutico wrote in a joint statement. “The example she has set only raises our ambitions for our next chapter as an independent agency. We wish her much continued success.” JL’s chief marketing officer, John McCarthy, said the agency is currently in the process of finding a replacement for Wilcox. Wilcox is the second JL employee TBWA has hired in the past year. Ben Myers, previously head of business development at Johannes Leonardo, joined TBWA\Chiat\Day as its North America CMO in 2023. Wilcox said she hadn’t been looking for a new role, but that TBWA was likely the only “bigger agency” she would have considered joining. “I always thought of independence as a mindset,” Wilcox said. “There is a spirit of entrepreneurialism and independent sort of rebel nature that exists within this agency that I’m really excited about. But then on the other side, they have the power of scale, and the power of tools.” Riley, who said she has been focused on making sure that TBWA’s New York and Los Angeles offices work more closely together, has had teams from both offices visit each other and is setting up a North America meeting in the coming months. She also appointed U.S. leaders from both offices to help oversee several of TBWA’s specialty offerings in B2B, design and social, as well as a council to oversee its innovation practice NEXT. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here

TBWA hires Johannes Leonardo CEO to lead its New York office

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