DDB announced that Mark O’Brien, currently the agency network’s North American COO, will take over as NA president, effective immediately. O’Brien replaces Dick Rogers, who’s been with the agency for 35 (!) years and is now moving up to chairman of of DDB’s NA ops.
O’Brien has basically been a DDB lifer himself, spending the last 16 years at the Omnicom-owned agency, first establishing DDB’s interactive business unit during the industry’s infancy in 1995 and in turn, effectively founding what would eventually become Tribal DDB. In 1998, O’Brien joined the corporate ranks, first helping getting Tribal off the ground before taking on the role of CFO of DDB North America and Asia Pacific in 2001 and making the agency’s presence known in the latter region.