IPG agency Huge went through a round of management performance reviews earlier this month and named new leadership across its global network from Brooklyn to Bogota.
On Friday, the organization announced two key promotions: Jason Musante will be global executive creative director and Derek Fridman will be global executive experience director, effective immediately.
They succeed chief creative officer Hans Neubert and managing director of experience design Sherine Kazim, both of whom have left the organization. While Musante and Fridman will handle their former responsibilities, Huge does not plan to name a new CCO or MD of design.
An agency spokesperson confirmed the changes but did not elaborate.
Musante very recently came to Huge from Havas, where he was group ECD/managing director in New York and got top billing on September’s “Most Interesting Man” relaunch for Dos Equis. Just over a year ago, he was promoted to run the creative team in Manhattan by new managing partners Tim Maleeny and Matt Weiss. Before joining Havas in 2014, he held creative roles at Anomaly and BBDO, among other shops.
Fridman, a veteran of the Sapient, Razorfish and MRM//McCann organizations, was group creative director at Huge’s office in Atlanta before becoming head of experience design. He’s created work for a range of clients from Coca-Cola and HBO to Verizon and New Balance.
Neubert came to Huge last March after serving as chief creative officer at Frog Design, which also has offices in Brooklyn. His previous gigs included creative roles at VML and Razorfish. Kazim spent three and half years in Huge’s UX department after working at AKQA and holding several client-side jobs at companies as disparate as Walmart and Friendster.
The change reportedly came about due to a round of standard agency leadership reviews and a desire to promote from within. Tipsters tell us that several employees left Huge last week, but we don’t currently have any additional details.