John Deschner Joins TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A. as Chief Innovation Officer, Managing Director

By Erik Oster 

TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles welcomed John Deschner in the newly-created hybrid role of chief innovation officer, managing director.

Deschner will be tasked with furthering the agency’s digital and content capabilities, serving as a leader across departments while directly overseeing digital functions such as creative technology, integrated production and social media strategy and management. He will report directly to president Erin Riley, who announced his hire today. 

“When we set out to find someone to lead agency innovation, we knew we were looking for a unicorn: someone with both highly specialized and broad-based skill sets, who could not only lead and grow our digital practice but also serve the company at large as a leader and change agent,” Riley said in a statement. “We are incredibly excited to have found that unicorn in John. His experience is as impressive as it is comprehensive and diverse, and he will be a welcome addition to our growing team.”

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Deschner joins TBWA from Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, where he has served as CEO since August of 2015. Prior to that he spent over four years with Deutsch L.A.

He joined Deutsch as senior vice president, digital group account director on HTC North America in August of 2011, following over two and a half years as a client services director with AKQA. A year later he was promoted to executive vice president, group account director and was elevated to executive director, digital account director a year after that. During his time with Deutsch L.A. he worked with clients including Volkswagen, Target and Nintendo, in addition to HTC.

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