- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Harvey Marco, formerly executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi in Torrance, Calif., is heading to JWT in New York to steer its creative department under Ty Montague, JWT has confirmed.

Montague, chief creative officer and co-president since he joined the WPP Group shop in January 2005, is handing his CCO role to Marco and will now focus on the agency management duties he shares with co-president Rosemarie Ryan.

Marco will start in September and report to Montague and Ryan, the agency said.

Montague described Marco as a "salt of the earth guy" with "no pretense" and a resolute focus on the work. "He and I philosophically and creatively are aligned," Montague added.

News of Marco's next move surfaced after his resignation last week from Publicis Groupe's Saatchi, where he has worked since 2003. Saatchi confirmed that he was leaving the agency, whose bedrock client is Toyota, for another opportunity.

This year, JWT in New York has added some significant accounts, including global creative duties both on Microsoft's Enterprise Solutions business and Diageo's Baileys liqueur. And in December 2007, the office led a team of WPP agencies that won global marketing services duties on Royal Caribbean.

Major media spending behind the Microsoft, Royal Caribbean and Baileys assignments are estimated at $150 million, $90 million and $40 million, respectively.

"We've nearly doubled in size in the past four years and this latest leadership evolution will further allow us to build on the momentum and continue to innovate for the agency and our clients," said Ryan.

Marco joined Saatchi five years ago as a creative director, rose to ecd in 2004 and became the top creative when Steve Rabosky left in November 2005. On his watch, Saatchi won a gold Effie for a Tundra campaign as well as gold and bronze Lions at Cannes for two different Toyota Tacoma efforts.

"He has done a great job at Saatchi & Saatchi over the past five years, building a stellar creative reputation for the office in a very tough market on very challenging businesses," Montague said.

Before Saatchi, the 43-year-old art director by training worked at Fallon in Minneapolis and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. He first cut his teeth in the business working under Ralph Ammirati at Ammirati & Puris in New York.