The biggest creative suite shuffles of 2023

Amid the promise and perils of an industry in flux, agencies across the marketing world shuffled creative leadership in 2023, looking for breakthrough work as well as a vision for navigating everything from artificial intelligence to remote work in their creative departments. The moves happened at holding companies and independent agencies alike. And we also saw some creative startups get off the ground. Below, we recap the biggest creative-executive changes of 2023. See our Year in Review stories here Global chief creative officers In February, McCann announced it had hired Javier Campopiano from Grey as global CCO of both McCann Worldgroup and the McCann agency. The news came a month after McCann announced that Alex Lopez, former CCO of McCann Worldgroup, was leaving the company. Campopiano’s arrival led to other creative changes in October at the Worldgroup network. Shannon Washington took the role of global CCO at Gotham, Worldgroup’s global creative boutique, after years at R/GA. Shayne Millington was named CCO of McCann New York. And Pierre Lipton (formerly co-CCO of McCann NY with Millington) moved to global executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup. At Grey, Campopiano’s global CCO role was filled by Gabriel Schmitt in March. Schmitt came over from FCB New York, where he had been co-CCO with Michael Aimette. Also in February, Teemu Suviala took the global CCO role at brand consulting firm Landor & Fitch. Suviala had previously been global head of brand design for Meta’s Reality Labs. In November, DDB hired Chaka Sobhani from Leo Burnett U.K. as global CCO, just weeks after Ari Weiss said he was stepping down from the role after seven years to open his own indie agency in early 2024. Leo Burnett U.K. named Mark Elwood as Sobhani’s successor, promoting him from ECD to CCO. Chief creative officers In addition to global CCOs, other CCOs were appointed this year at the regional and office level of many agencies. In February, Jason Sperling said he was leaving Meta after two and a half years to return to the agency world as CCO of Hyundai agency Innocean USA. Before joining Meta, Sperling had spent a decade at Honda agency RPA. Also in February, Canadian indie Zulu Alpha Kilo hired Jenny Glover as CCO in Toronto. Glover left the same post at crosstown agency Juniper Park\TBWA. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Toygar Bazarkaya, a 30-year advertising veteran, joined 22Squared in April as its new CCO. Before that, he had been CCO at Optimist in Los Angeles, and also held CCO roles at We Are Unlimited and Havas earlier in his career. In May, VCCP hired Arts & Letters veteran Jed Grossman to lead creative efforts across its newly merged U.S. operations as the agency’s first U.S. CCO. The move came after the London-based VCCP network merged VCCP New York with its San Francisco-based creative agency, Muhtayzik Hoffer. Also in May, digital agency Barbarian hired a new CCO, Vince Lim, after previous CCO Tim Wilson lasted only a year in the role. Lim came to Cheil-backed Barbarian from Argonaut New York, where he had been ECD. Indie agency Fig appointed Justine Armour as its new CCO in June, replacing Scott Vitrone, who had departed a year earlier. Armour was previously CCO of Grey New York before leaving in mid-2022. In September, Ogilvy New York hired Samira Ansari as CCO, replacing Menno Kluin, who had held the role for over a year. Ansari joined from Deutsch New York, where she had been CCO since May 2022. Also in September, Wieden+Kennedy promoted Marques Gartrell and Brandon Henderson from ECDs to co-CCOs of the New York office. Also, Felipe Ribeiro moved from CCO of W+K São Paulo to co-CCO of W+K Portland, alongside Azsa West. A few months later, W+K filled Ribeiro’s position in São Paulo by hiring Rodrigo Jatene, previously CCO of DDB Chicago. See our Year in Review stories here In October, Leo Burnett Chicago veteran Sam Shepherd joined the newly opened New York office of Uncommon Creative Studio as its CCO. Shephard had been global ECD at Burnett. In November, Colle McVoy in Minneapolis hired Ciro Sarmiento as its new CCO. Sarmiento most recently worked at Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where he was ECD leading Tide and Downy. Finally, this month, SS+K promoted Stevie Archer from ECD to CCO. Executive creative directors Many agencies also made notable appointments at the ECD level. In February, New York-based indie Alto hired Dan Kroeger and Pierre Janneau-Houllier as ECDs and partners. The pair had worked with Alto founder Hannes Ciatti as freelancers at both JohnXHannes and at Alto itself before joining full-time. Tombras hired Avinash Baliga from Maximum Effort in May to be the agency’s first ECD. Baliga now runs the creative department at Tombras New York, working with Jeff Benjamin, the agency’s Knoxville, Tennessee-based CCO. In August, Pereira O’Dell lured Juliana Constantino away from Meta to become its new ECD. Constantino had spent eight years at Meta, first at Facebook and later at Instagram. In September, Canadian indie Rethink bolstered its growing New York office by hiring Tara Lawall from Droga5 as ECD. Lawall, who held the same title at Droga, teamed up with Daniel Lobatón, Rethink’s CCO in New York. Another Droga5 veteran, Juliana Cobb, left the agency in November after eight years to lead 72andSunny’s New York creative department as ECD. Cobb had also been an ECD at Droga. Notable exits There were also some notable exits atop the creative ranks in 2023. In March, Dentsu Creative parted ways with Fred Levron, its global CCO, “by mutual agreement,” according to Dentsu International. Levron had spent nearly 10 months in the role. In August, John Mescall left McCann Worldgroup after almost a decade as global ECD. Mescall had also been president of the agency’s global Creative Leadership Council. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Also in August, David Baldwin said he was stepping down from Baldwin&, the independent North Carolina agency he founded in 2009. Baldwin sold the agency to three longtime staffers—Jerry Bodrie, Ashley Yetman and Tonya Martin. Finally, one top creative marketer, Fernando Machado, made a notable arrival and exit from the same job in the same year. Machado, a former chief marketing officer at Activision Blizzard and Restaurant Brands International, joined NotCo, the plant-based food-tech company, in March. He stepped down from the position in November. Creative agency launches Last but not least, a few top creative execs launched their own agencies this year. In June, Terry Crews said he had teamed up with longtime agency veterans Matt O’Rourke and Paul Sutton to open Super Serious, an entertainment-driven agency venture. Super Serious launched with a mini-musical for Impossible Foods. Two months later, veteran creative leader Noel Cottrell hung out his own shingle with Murder Hornet, an agency he also envisions as a consumer brand down the line.

The biggest creative suite shuffles of 2023

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