Dennis Ryan Takes CCO Post at Olson

By Kiran Aditham 

We’ve been hearing about Dennis Ryan’s departure from Element 79 since the long weekend and now his next destination’s confirmed. Ryan, who had been with the the aforementioned Chicago-based shop for nearly a decade, is headed up to Minneapolis to take on the chief creative officer title at Olson. It’s a new position for Olson, which as we reported last week, promoted ECD Tom Fugleberg to chief brand officer.

Ryan, who spent the last several years as partner/CCO at Element 79, will relocate to to Minneapolis but will be spending one day a week “helping drive integration” at Olson’s Chicago office. Before Element 79, the 6’5″ Ryan spent a handful of years as an ECD at JWT, working on Dell, Blockbuster and Kraft business. Prior to that, he served as a creative for 13 years at DDB, moving up from copywriter to GCD during his tenure. In a statement, Olson CEO Kevin DiLorenzo says, “Dennis emerged quickly as a favorite in [the] CCO search. He has a sophisticated and polished creative sensibility, yet he embraces next-generation creativity.”

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