Ad Age identified leaders from various agency holding groups and independent shops as ones to watch in 2025.
There is an endless stream of questions facing agency leaders in 2025. What does the agency model of the future look like? How do I grow in a stagnant economy? How do I maintain my culture? How do I drive revenue as client budgets continue to shrink? What will be the ripple effects of the proposed mega merger of Omnicom and Interpublic Group of Cos.?
The list goes on and on.
Some agency executives are more pressured than others to perform in 2025, creating a sense of urgency to answer some of these questions. Others are experiencing a ton of positive momentum that they’ll have to continue building on in the new year.
Ad Age evaluated which executives the industry will be watching closely in 2025—for better or worse—with some guidance from industry sources including analysts, consultants and recruiters. Below are 20 agency leaders, in alphabetical order, that the industry is going to be paying attention to in the new year, for a wide range of reasons, including underperformance at their agencies and expected plans for expansion. (Unless otherwise noted, all the execs listed declined to comment for this story.)
Ajaz Ahmed, founder and former CEO, AKQA
Ajaz Ahmed was just 21 when he founded AKQA in 1994. He led it for 30 years as CEO, through various changes including its acquisition by WPP in 2012 and merger with Grey in 2020. So it came as a shock to some when he resigned from the agency in October.
The executive sent an emotional email to the agency’s employees at the time, saying that “serving AKQA’s team, clients and values over the past 30 years has been the greatest honor of my life.”
It will be interesting to see what Ahmed does next—one person close to him said he has no plans of retiring. He has been focused on charitable work and sits on boards including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Virgin Unite (founded by Richard Branson) and Mission 44 (founded by Lewis Hamilton).
As Ahmed wrote in his email to staff, AKQA had been his “whole adult life,” and noted the agency’s ability to weather several storms since he founded it including “the dotcom crash, the global financial crisis, the pandemic and the recent downturn.”
AKQA seemed to thrive during the height of the COVID pandemic, when data-driven digital shops were in demand, and people in the industry speculated that was why WPP merged it with the struggling legacy creative agency, Grey, in 2020. But in recent years, many digital agencies have been struggling.
As for the future of AKQA, Jay Pattisall, VP principal analyst at Forrester, said he’d like to see WPP bring digital shops including AKQA closer to its media-buying business.
“The digital creative agency category is too far removed from the media side of the business—2025 could be a year for AKQA and GroupM to come together,” he said.
(Left to right) Andrea Diquez, global CEO, and Sandra Alfaro, U.S. CEO, Gut
Gut landed two big hires as it continued to expand globally: Andrea Diquez was poached from DDB Chicago as the agency’s first global CEO in October 2022 and Sandra Alfaro followed from the same agency and was named Gut’s U.S. CEO in July 2023.
The two now have their first year under their belts and some people interviewed said they’re closely watching to see what they do to continue Gut’s growth in 2025.
Gut continued to expand in 2024, opening its third U.S. office and ninth global hub in New York in September, along with a Madrid office in May and a Singapore one in October. Diquez has said the shop has been able to secure the funds to expand because of its relationship with Globant, which acquired a majority stake in Gut in late 2023.
Gut executives have said the shop is hiring in New York, which launched with 15 employees. It’s continued to hire elsewhere, as well, including in Buenos Aires, one of Gut’s two founding offices and Ad Age’s 2024 International Agency of the Year.
Cashmere’s former executive team, including CEO Seung Chung; Chairman and Founder Ted Chung, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Entertainment Rona Mercado; Chief Diversity Officer Aisha Bean; Chief of Staff Joey Furutani; and VP of Operations Mehera Bey.
The industry will be watching closely to see what happens to the group of executive leaders who suddenly left Cashmere in November.
An internal email from Cashmere CEO Seung Chung, which was shared earlier with Ad Age, listed the following Cashmere executives as having stepped down: Chairman and Founder Ted Chung, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Entertainment Rona Mercado, Chief Diversity Officer Aisha Bean, Chief of Staff Joey Furutani and VP of Operations Mehera Bey.
Chung also wrote that he would be stepping down and that President and Chief Creative Officer Ryan Ford and Chief Growth Officer Cameron Crane have stayed on at Cashmere on a consultancy basis to help with the transition.
Some people who spoke to Ad Age speculated about whether the former Cashmere leaders were preparing to start something new, wondering what could have sparked these sudden departures. Its parent company, S4 Capital’s Monks, did not comment on the exits.
“The recent departure of Cashmere’s seasoned leaders marks a potentially very interesting shake up and the industry should keenly observe what these executives venture into next. If they choose to launch a new endeavor, it won't just be about replicating the success of Cashmere, but rather innovating beyond it. Watching what comes next will be fascinating,” Rachel Segall and Simone Oppenheimer Mandel, co-founders of consultancy NBZ Partner, wrote in a joint email to Ad Age.
Cashmere was started more than 20 years ago and has made a name for itself for its work that has a cultural influence. Some of its key clients include Kraft Heinz, FX, Marriott Bonvoy, Disney, Netflix and Max. Cashmere agreed to a merger deal with Monks, which was then known as Media.Monks, in 2021.
Greg Hahn, chief creative officer and co-founder, Mischief @ No Fixed Address
With hot creative shops creating headaches for legacy agencies, all eyes will be on Greg Hahn to see how he keeps the momentum going for Mischief @ No Fixed Address.
The chief creative officer and co-founder has positioned the shop to deliver outstanding creative work every year since its founding in 2020. Mischief topped Ad Age’s 2024 A-List, as it did in 2022, and was also named Creative Agency of the Year last year—the first time in nearly a decade that the same agency has won both of those top honors. Hahn himself was named Ad Age Creativity Awards’ Chief Creative Officer of the Year in 2024.
While many in the industry have looked at Hahn, and what he’s built at Mischief, as proof out-of-the-box creativity is still in demand, some people are undoubtedly wondering how long this startup shop’s win streak can last. Hahn himself told Ad Age in a recent interview that he’s “very aware of the slippery slopes that can happen in growing.”
Some people, including consultants, interviewed by Ad Age said it will be interesting to see how Mischief matures from a quirky, start-up shop known for risky creative, into a strong independent agency with longevity.
Recent news: JCPenney hires Mischief as retailer plots its comeback
Greg Paull, co-founder or R3, said he would like to see Hahn secure more longstanding agency-of-record relationships for Mischief, the type of client partnerships that make a legacy shop.
“Mischief’s biggest challenge is to migrate work from project-based to AOR-based,” he said. “One thing that differentiates Wieden from other boutiques is the plethora of long-term retainer clients like Nike and McDonald’s.”
“When I think of Mischief, I think of the adage, ‘What got you here, will not get you there,’” Pattisall said. “Early on, independent creative shops like Mischief enjoy a start-up advantage in which the energy and exuberance of their founders, relatively low overhead and newness in the marketplace allows them to over-invest time, energy and resources in their clients. That works to establish an agency. But not to scale one. Greg Hahn and Mischief will succeed in 2025 if they can mature from a startup to established business.”
Teri Miller, president and partner, Mother U.S.
Mother is another agency with some wind at its back; it was the only independent agency to win some of General Motors business alongside Preacher and holding company shops such as Stagwell’s Anomaly and 72andSunny, Omnicom Precision Marketing and Monks.
Surely, Mother hopes for some more big-dog wins like GM in 2025, and someone close to the business said Miller is the biggest driver of new business.
Mother has been particularly noteworthy for demonstrating its ability to grow while maintaining its independence, and part of that success can be attributed to Miller’s leadership, Pattisall said.
“The startup creative world should take a chapter from Mother’s efforts to scale their operation globally, launch new lines of business while keeping their creative credentials and spirit from leaders like Miller,” he said.
Mother was a Standout on Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List, after some sweet wins in 2023 including Reese’s, which Mother London picked up—it's since produced campaigns that aim to replicate the candy’s U.S. popularity in the British market.
Emma Montgomery, global chief strategy officer, Droga5
Emma Montgomery’s October appointment as global chief strategy officer of Droga5 rounded out a new global leadership team for the Accenture Song-owned agency, which hasn’t been quite on the top of its game in the past few years.
In August, the agency named Mark Green, co-founder and CEO of Australian creative shop The Monkeys, as its global CEO, while earlier in the year, Droga5 hired Activision Blizzard executive Pelle Sjoenell as worldwide chief creative officer. Executives have told Ad Age that these new leaders are expected to start a “new chapter” for Droga5.
Some people have told Ad Age that Montgomery, specifically, who was DDB Chicago CEO, is being seen as someone who can restore Droga5 to its glory days. Her time as president and chief strategy officer of Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett, from 2017 to 2020, was praised by one anonymous ad executive—while there, Montgomery oversaw the strategy and business leadership for its Chicago office and implemented new design and development capabilities.
In 2020, Droga5 was named Ad Age’s Agency of the Decade, as it had helped define the standards for creativity during the 2010-2020 period, and even earlier. The agency has topped Ad Age’s A-List and Creativity Awards several times including in 2007 and, most recently, in 2021. But Droga5 has been overshadowed in recent years by newcomers such as Mischief and was named Ad Age’s 2024 A-List Agency to Watch, marking two years since the shop was last named one of Ad Age’s top 10 agencies.
Susie Nam, CEO, Publicis Creative U.S.
Susie Nam, CEO of Publicis Creative U.S., will be expected to spark some big wins for the holding company network this year. Nam joined Publicis in December 2023 from Droga5, where she spent 14 years of her career, more recently as CEO of Americas.
While its media business remains strong, Publicis Groupe’s creative agencies are in need of a turnaround after being pressured by a series of losses in 2024.
Leo Burnett, for example, lost several Kellanova brands in the snack marketer’s portfolio following a review that concluded in July, though it retained some, including Pop-Tarts. In October, Publicis lost Campbell Soup Co.’s Goldfish, which had previously largely been handled by Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett, to Mischief. At the start of 2024, Saatchi & Saatchi lost T-Mobile to Dentsu Creative.
And in November, Leo Burnett revealed plans to close its Detroit office and lay off 79 employees after losing key business from General Motors.
Tracey Brown—executive VP, chief customer officer and president of Walgreens Retail, a current Publicis client—sang Nam’s praises in an email to Ad Age, noting her competence in leading Publicis Creative in 2025.
“From the very first meeting I had with Susie to discuss the Walgreens business, I instantly knew she would be a game changer in helping us drive our turnaround," Brown said. "She is an innovator, with cool confidence, who is not afraid of big audacious goals. Most importantly she has the uncanny ability to thread the needle to bring the full power of Publicis network through creativity, data, technology, brand, loyalty, media and retail excellence to drive results. One of the things I love the most is that she is a great collaborator and always finds a way to plus up an idea … Simply put, she just makes things better!”
Preacher’s Co-Founders: Chief Strategy Officer Seth Gaffney, CEO Krystle Loyland and Chief Creative Officer Rob Baird
Preacher’s three co-founders—CEO Krystle Loyland, Chief Creative Officer Rob Baird and Chief Strategy Officer Seth Gaffney—are experiencing some momentum as 2025 begins and we’ll be watching to see how they keep it going.
Preacher—named a Standout on Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List and Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year, Southwest, Gold—turned 10 in 2024 and really started to give other industry shops a run for their money.
The Austin, Texas-based agency has of late been winning larger accounts from legacy agencies. In June, General Motors appointed the independent shop to its roster of ad agencies following a review and, in February 2023, Preacher was named creative agency of record for Foot Locker. It has also opened an office in Amsterdam.
The shop seems to be winning on all fronts, from a creative and business standpoint, and that’s a testament to the leadership of all three of its co-founders.
Preacher’s revenue rose 45% to $16 million in 2023 and it won more than 80% of its pitches, according to the agency. Baird, in a recent interview, told Ad Age that Preacher has always stayed true to “soulful” culture, and now larger clients are seeing the value in it.
WPP CEO Mark Read
WPP CEO Mark Read is often in the spotlight—naturally so, as he leads the largest ad agency group in the world … for now. The holding company will be put under pressure in 2025 if the Omnicom-IPG merger goes through as planned in the second half of the year, which will result in WPP losing its longstanding status as the world’s largest agency company.
WPP’s dominance was already on shaky ground, and it could slip from No. 1 to No. 3 if the merger happens and rival Publicis outpaces WPP like it has charged it will.
Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun said on the holding company’s second-quarter earnings call in June that he was gearing up to surpass WPP, in terms of net revenue, by the end of 2024. And, in October, WPP reported that its third-quarter organic revenue was up just 0.5%, lagging the growth at Publicis (5.8%) and Omnicom (6.5%).
WPP is being pressured on all sides. The company’s revenue growth from creative agencies declined 3.1% in the third quarter, as it faces competition from a rising tide of hot new independent creative shops that are taking more business from all the major holding companies.
On the media side, WPP’s GroupM is losing some of its clout among advertisers and has, over the past few years, lagged competitors in providing clients with truly integrated, data-powered solutions. GroupM did finalize a restructuring in June that aims to simplify its offering for clients, and replaced former Global CEO Christian Juhl with the more tech-focused Brian Lesser in July. The industry will be watching to see how these changes impact WPP’s media investment arm.
Still, some financial analysts shared positive outlooks on WPP in late 2024. Barclays rated WPP stock an “overweight” buy in October, writing in a note that the holding company had “turned the first corner. We expect them to turn a second corner next year on their way to 3%+ organic [growth].” Bernstein rated WPP shares “outperform” following third-quarter earnings and wrote that while its performance in the quarter underperformed its peer group, “the gap is closing slowly.”
Nonetheless, some in the industry will be looking for WPP to come up with some fresh ideas to drive business in 2025, according to some people, including analysts, interviewed by Ad Age.
Forrester’s Pattisall said Read has carried out many of the changes he laid out in 2018, when he was appointed CEO, including the sale of its majority stake in Kantar, the consolidation of networks such as Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R, to form VML, and the launch of its AI-backed tech hub, Open.
“Yet, the company has realized modest to flat growth,” Pattisall said, questioning whether WPP needs a “new strategy” in 2025.
Paull said Read will need to focus on how to kickstart growth in the U.S. mainly. WPP “still manages an amazing global network, but it needs the firewood of U.S. growth to keep the flames burning,” he said.
Nancy Reyes, global CEO, BBDO
Nancy Reyes, global CEO of Omnicom’s BBDO, will certainly be one to watch in 2025. In October, she succeeded Andrew Robertson, who was the agency’s worldwide CEO and president for more than 20 years. Now, with the pending merger of Omnicom and IPG, her role stands to get a whole lot bigger.
Reyes will have to figure out BBDO’s place in a much larger creative network that will include IPG’s FCB, Deutsch and McCann. Some people interviewed said she’ll be up for the job. Robertson told Ad Age in an earlier interview that he had been preparing her to take his place since she joined in 2023 as BBDO’s Americas CEO. She is the first woman and person of color to hold the global CEO role at BBDO.
Leaders, including Robertson, have said they are excited to see what fresh thinking Reyes can bring to the legacy agency, in an age where holding company creative shops are being pressured by a host of issues including shrinking budgets and increasing competition from startups.
Reyes is also taking over amid larger leadership exits and shuffles, which there are bound to be more if the deal goes through—Former BBDO New York Chief Creative Officer Matt MacDonald recently joined VCCP U.S. as chief creative officer; Global Chief Creative Officer David Lubars announced his retirement in April (Lubars is being replaced by Chris Beresford-Hill); longtime BBDO execs Jeff Adkins and Kirsten Flanik, who led Energy BBDO and BBDO New York, respectively, left; and Jiah Choi joined the agency to lead both of BBDO’s New York and Chicago offices.
BBDO enjoyed a few wins in 2024, renewing its relationship with longstanding client Pepsi without a pitch and landing on the creative agency roster of consumer health company Kenvue. Reyes will be responsible for keeping the wins coming while maintaining partnerships with key clients as the merger ensues.
Wesley ter Haar, co-founder and co-CEO, Monks
The mass exodus of Cashmere’s leadership team is not the only problem facing Wesley ter Haar, co-founder and co-CEO of Monks.
Cashmere’s leaders resigned one day after Monks’ parent company, S4 Capital, where ter Haar is also executive director, announced a 12.6% decline in third-quarter net revenue on a like-for-like basis and forecast a low double-digit decline in full-year like-for-like net revenue.
S4 has been underperforming—the company’s shares on Nov. 13 hit an all-time low of 29 pence (37 cents) in trading on the London Stock Exchange, down 97% from their September 2021 all-time high.
And Cashmere’s executive departures only add to a decline in Monks’ staff. At its largest, Monks had around 9,000 employees and as of November had around 7,500. S4 said in its Nov. 7 quarterly report that the company is “seeing a significant reduction” in employee count as it brings “our capacity more in line with the level of revenue.”
Paull said ter Haar will need to “show some more shoots of green” in 2025 as pressures mount on S4’s stock price.
Still, Pattisall said ter Haar’s “big bet” on the agency’s AI-powered marketing services platform, Monks.Flow, that aims to fuel personalized creative at scale, seems to be paying off with recent wins including General Motors—the automaker added Monks to its roster of ad agencies following a review in June to “bring a modern approach to real-time, efficient content development.”
Pattisall advised ter Haar and Monks to “stay the course with their managed services.”
Omnicom Chairman and CEO John Wren
John Wren will be staying on as Omnicom Chairman and CEO through the holding company's planned acquisition of IPG. For how long he will lead what is set to become the world’s largest agency group is unclear, but he is at least expected to stay at the helm as these massive entities combine—the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025, generate $750 million in annual cost synergies and result in a 100,000-person holding company.
Under Omnicom’s mandatory retirement age policy for board members, Wren, 72, would need to retire from the board no later than 2028, the year after he turns 75. However, the Omnicom board “may waive this limitation for any director if the board determines that it is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to extend the director’s service.”
Either way, Wren will be a must-watch figure in 2025, with all eyes on how he manages to lead the biggest agency deal in a decade.
Of course, this isn’t his first rodeo. He led a failed attempt to merge Omnicom with Publicis in 2014. His legacy depends on a successful outcome for the Omnicom-IPG combination.
