Back in May, some interesting news hit the Chicago agency world as Y&R told us that former FCB account director Marty Stock–who broke away in 2012 to launch Cavalry with the help of one MillerCoors–would simultaneously serve as CEO of both that shop and Y&R Chicago.
Today Stock announced his first big move atop the Chicago pile by hiring Leo Burnett veteran Leyla Touma Dailey to become chief creative officer of both operations.
From the press release:
“The breadth of Leyla’s background across so many disciplines is a wonderful fit for us. While ideas drive the business, it’s the precise execution of those ideas that’s often the difference between success and failure. Leyla brings a wonderful sensibility for the work and what will help us build our clients’ business.”
Dailey joins Karl Turnbull, who was chief strategy officer at Cavalry after working with Stock at FCB. He will now serve as CSO at both agencies as well.
The last change atop the Chicago team’s creative department came more than a year ago when Stock parted ways with Cavalry CCO Jim Larmon, who is now ECD at Windy City-area healthcare agency SPM Marketing & Communications. Y&R Chicago has similarly not had a CCO since last January, when Bill Cimino left to go freelance. At the time, the agency promoted CDs Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson to SVP/ECD and ECD, respectively. They have been handling all accounts including Barilla, Butterball, Carfax and DoubleTree.
Dailey started her career in journalism before spending more than a decade with the Digitas organization in Boston and Chicago. She then moved to Arc Worldwide/Leo Burnett, where she worked on the Coca-Cola portfolio and the Comcast account in addition to pitching new business.
Cavalry was founded to serve only MillerCoors, but since that client split last summer and sent its business to various shops including 72andSunny and Mekanism, Cavalry has picked up several new accounts including American Freedom Foundation, Aidell’s Sausage and, most prominently, RJ Reynolds.
The official word from Y&R PR still holds that the two agencies do not plan to merge.