- David Gianatasio

BOSTON Ron Smrczek takes over as ecd at Taxi's New York office effective Oct. 1. He succeeds Wayne Best, who left the shop in April.

In New York, Smrczek, 34, will lead a department of 20-plus staffers and work with the agency's New York president, John Berg, at overall management of the 45-person office. The other key creative leaders are Jason McCann, interactive cd and Stewart Devlin, design cd.

Clients of Taxi in N.Y. include Johnson & Johnson (Motrin and Children's Motrin), OpenSkies (a subsidiary of British Airways) and New York Life.

Smrczek joins from Taxi in Toronto, where he had been a cd and helped shepherd some of the shop's most notable recent campaigns, including "Gibberish" and "Bleep" for Viagra and "Speed" for Nike.

That pedigree, plus his ability to take an active role in developing client relationships, mentor new talent and build the agency's culture made him a good fit for the New York creative slot, said Paul Lavoie, CCO and chairman of Taxi.

Gary Westgate takes over in Toronto.

Smrczek had been cd there for the past year. He joined Taxi in 2003, left briefly in 2005 for Zig, returning in 2006 as associate creative director.