Well, guess barely eight months was long enough for Mark Modesto to figure out that it was time to see what lies beyond MARC USA. Modesto, the 30-year Draftfcb alum who joined MARC’s Chicago operation last October as president, is now assuming the CEO position at Ryan Partnership, an integrated marketing agency that has offices in Wilton, CT, Chicago, San Francisco and Columbus, OH and is housed within the Hyper Marketing fold. Modesto isn’t going it alone, though, as his old MARC partner-in-crime John Immesoete, who served as ECD at said agency, is also joining Ryan Partnership as its new CCO. The MARC alums will officially join Ryan on June 4.
Anyhow, you might remember the name Zain Raj, who took over as president/CEO when SolutionSet and MediaWhiz merged last summer and then ultimately assumed the CEO title when SolutionSet/MediaWhiz joined forces with D.L. Ryan to form Hyper Marketing at the beginning of this year. Anyhow, check out the lengthy memo from Raj regarding the new hires after the jump.
Dear Colleagues,
I have some very exciting and significant news to share with you today as it relates to the Ryan Partnership management team and our expanded offering. Effective June 4, industry veterans Mark Modesto and John Immesoete will join us as CEO and Chief Creative Officer, respectively.
As two of the best brand builders in the business, Mark and John join us from Marc USA’s Chicago office, where they worked in tandem to bring in new business including Rana Pasta, Loyola Hospital, CBS Sports and Payless Shoes. They will be based in Chicago with responsibility across Ryan’s 10 offices, 691 employees and will report to me.
In addition to these new hires, effective today John Kuendig has been promoted to Chairman of Ryan Partnership and will remain in Wilton. As many of your know we are realigning some of the network capabilities including CRM and data to enhance the Ryan offering. John K. has an unrivaled understanding of the Ryan culture, having been with us for nearly 17 years, which will be invaluable during this transition period.
These changes not only mark a defining moment in the evolution of Ryan as a leading integrated agency, but reflect our ability to attract and retain the best talent in the industry, bar none.
Prior to Marc USA, Mark was President of DraftFCB North America, after rising through the ranks at FCB and spanning a 30-year career with the agency where he led important businesses including Kraft, Coors, State Farm Insurance and S.C. Johnson. Following the merger of Draft and FCB in 2006, Mark helped grow the agency’s Chicago office by 25 percent, winning new clients like Kmart, Qwest, Newell Rubbermaid and MillerCoors, making it the largest agency in Chicago at the time and one of the city’s “Best Places to Work.” I personally worked with Mark during my own FCB days, and speak from experience when I say that Mark is truly one of the best in the business at client relationship building and growing businesses. He also has a keen understanding for nurturing talent. Mark will be a tremendous leader with a lifetime of knowledge and experience to bring to Ryan, and I’m thrilled for him to join the team.
For his part, John I. brings us best-in-class creative chops, having won practically every award in the business from Clio to Lion, and during his time at DDB created some of Bud Light’s most famous advertising, including the highly successful “Real Men of Genius” work, which is still the most-awarded campaign? of all time. He has a multifaceted background – he left DDB in 2004 to write and shoot a pilot for NBC with Modern Family Producer Steve Levitan, “The Dante Show,” before building an prolific career as a commercial director and writer for brands including Heineken, VW, BMW, Miller, Anheuser Busch, Sprint, The independent Film Channel and many others. John’s strength in integrated marketing and ability to produce award-winning work that also reaps strong resultswill be an important asset to our creative talent and our clients.
Multi-disciplinary leadership is critical to our way forward as an unrivaled integrated marketing agency. We now live in an omni-channel world, and with that comes the need for skill sets across all marketing backgrounds with one common end goal: to change behavior and drive transactions in the most strategic and creative way possible. I am confident in the abilities of Mark, John I. and John K. to lead this charge.
Please join me in congratulating them on their new posts.
Cheers,
Zain