Leo Burnett’s Arc Makes Key Changes to U.S. Leadership Team

By Erik Oster 

Leo Burnett Group shopper marketing agency Arc made several changes to its U.S. leadership team. Arc appointed Chris Cancilla as U.S. CCO, promoted Karuna Rawal to president of Arc U.S. and Chief Strategy Officer of Arc Worldwide, and promoted global president Bob Raidt to global CEO. 

In his role as U.S. Chief Creative Officer, Cancilla will oversee 150 employees in the agency’s U.S. office while taking responsibility for driving the agency’s creative culture. He will work closely with and report to newly appointed Leo Burnett U.S. Chief Creative Officer Britt Nolan.

Cancilla joins the agency from VSA Partners, where he has served as associate partner, executive creative director for the past seven months. Before joining VSA Partners he spent nearly three years serving as CCO for TRISECT Agency, following around a year and a half as an executive creative director with the agency. While with TRISECT he worked with clients including Kawasaki, Kimberly-Clark, ConAgra Foods, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, US Cellular, and Newell-Rubbemaid. Prior to joining TRISECT he served as senior vice president, group creative director at Y&R for approximately three years, working with clients including Sears, Hilton Hotels, Dave & Busters and The American Red Cross. The appointment marks a return to Arc Worldwide for Cancilla, as before Y&R he spent four years as a senior vice president, group creative director with Arc. 

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Rawal will oversee operations and growth in her new role as U.S. president and Chief Strategy Officer, with a focus on building the capability, connectivity and performance of the agency, while reporting to Leo Burnett worldwide CEO Rich Stoddart. She has served as the agency’s executive vice president, business director/global planning lead for the past two and a half years, serving as strategic lead on Leo Burnett’s “#LikeAGirl” campaign. Rawal originally joined Arc Worldwide as senior vice president, retail strategy in February of 2010, subsequently serving as executive vice president, strategy director before being named to her business director/global planning lead role in November of 2013. Before joining Arc she spent seven and a half years as owner and president of Arya Consulting, following time with Procter & Gamble as a brand manager and marketing director. 

In his new position as global CEO, Raidt will focus on expanding Arc’s global brand. Raidt has served as Arc’s global president for a little over a year, following over ten and a half years as executive vice president, worldwide account head for Leo Burnett. While serving in that role, Raidt led the agency’s McDonald’s, Samsung, Coca-Cola and Swiffer accounts. He originally joined Leo Burnett as vice president, account director back in July of 1996, subsequently serving as senior vice president of Leo Burnett Singapore and Asia Pacific regional account director and senior vice president, brand account director for Leo Burnett Tokyo.

Additionally, Arc also named Nick Jones as executive vice president, global business development and innovation; and Scott Fry as vice president, group executive producer.

“The intersection of shopper, technology and ecommerce creates a dynamic moment of change that is critically important to our clients’ business,” said Stoddart. “Therefore, we’re recalibrating our Arc leadership team to better tackle and lead our clients through this fast and ever-changing landscape.”

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