BBH Promotes From Within, Naming the First CEO of Its L.A. Office

BBH L.A. has named its first CEO by promoting from within its own ranks.

Frances Great, who has been the office’s managing director since 2015, will serve as chief executive officer, effective immediately, BBH Global CEO Neil Munn announced today.

“Frances and the BBH L.A. team have successfully established the agency as a leader in integrating the worlds of entertainment and advertising,” Munn said in a statement. “Frances also brings a global viewpoint and experience working with some of the world’s top brands, including Johnnie Walker, Axe, Levi Strauss and Coca-Cola, among others. That perspective is an asset in a time when so many brands are global, and digital media is connecting us all instantaneously.”

Great will be tasked with growing the agency’s core business and entertainment IP while working alongside BBH worldwide chief creative officer Pelle Sjoenell. Sjoenell, who founded the Los Angeles office in 2010 after three years with BBH New York, was elevated to that role at the beginning of 2016.

“There’s been talk for years of a convergence between Madison Avenue and Hollywood, but now the elements are really in place to make it a reality,” Great said. “It’s tremendously fun to be in the center of where this is all happening.”

Great joined BBH as an account manager in its London office in 1999. She relocated to Singapore in 2002 and was named that office’s managing director in 2010 before relocating once again to serve as managing director of BBH L.A. in 2015.

“Brands today are forced to look beyond paying their way to attention, and that’s a good thing because done right, it pays back,” Sjoenell said in a statement. “In dollars, yes, but more importantly in appreciation from the audience. Few know this better than Frances, and we are very fortunate to have her lead us and our brand partners to success in this exciting space.”

In recent years, the L.A. office has worked on campaigns for such clients as Google, NBCUniversal, Absolut, Unilever, H&M and Depeche Mode. In the latter case, it led an effort in which the classic synth-pop band will let a different fan take over its Facebook page for an entire year.