NEW YORK Chris Shumaker today as expected joined Foote Cone & Belding as the Interpublic Group agency’s evp and chief growth officer.
He resigned from WPP Group’s Grey in August to join IPG, but had to take an extended leave of absence until the last five months of his Grey contract had expired.
FCB CEO Steve Blamer, Grey’s former North American CEO, had hired Shumaker, 45, at Grey in 2004 to lead new business.
In a statement, Blamer praised Shumaker’s “depth and breadth of knowledge, energy, connections and ‘gentle’ tenacity that will optimize FCB’s new business efforts.”
Blamer, who left Grey in December 2004, had to sit out six months to honor his employment contract before joining FCB in June.
While at Grey, Shumaker helped land the Manpower and Land’s End accounts, and he is credited with generally streamlining that shop’s new business processes.
Before working at Grey, he was director of business development at IPG’s The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., helping pull in accounts such as UPS, Olympus, Kellogg’s, the American Stock Exchange, Nascar, Quiznos Sub, AXA Financial and Timberland.
FCB’s clients include S.C. Johnson, Diet Coke, Motorola, Qwest, Coors Light and Kraft.
Shumaker Joins FCB to Guide Growth
