AKQA’s Chee Splits for MRY? (Updated)

By Kiran Aditham 

Well, a phone call confirms at the very least that Ian Chee, who’s spent the last three years give or take as director, co-head of strategy/planning at AKQA New York, is no longer with the agency. From what we’ve been told on the Spy line, Chee’s moved over to fellow NYC operation MRY (formerly Mr. Youth), which of course merged with LBi a few months ago, to serve as its head of planning. We’ve been told that Chee assumed his post at MRY this week, but as far as his old position at AKQA goes, no word yet if there are any immediate plans to replace him.

Prior to AKQA, Chee held senior strategic planning positions in both the Asia-Pacific region and New York at the likes of Leo Burnett, McCann (global lead on Intel and Pfizer) and Digitas (on Delta among other clients).

Update: MRY has confirmed that Chee has indeed joined the agency as chief strategy officer and will oversee all planning and strategic output across its U.S. offices (counting NYC, Atlanta, San Francisco and soon, L.A.). With Chee’s arrival, MRY has in turn promoted Matt Rednor, who’s been with the agency since 2010, from chief strategy/innovation officer to simply chief innovation officer.

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