Deutsch New York Hires Its New Chief Strategy Officer Away From JWT

The New York office of Deutsch has hired Matt Baker away from WPP’s J. Walter Thompson, naming him chief strategy officer, a position that has been vacant for almost a year.

Baker, the current head of planning at JWT New York, will oversee Deutsch New York’s traditional and digital brand planning, data analytics and communications planning teams. He starts in this new position in January and will work directly with all of Deutsch’s clients including Johnson & Johnson, Busch, PNC Bank, Siemens and DraftKings.

“Matt’s the ideal unicorn–he has the analytical rigor, key digital know-how, strategic experience across multiple industries and the EQ needed to effectively lead today’s brands, deliver great creative ideas and build incredible ROI,” said Val DiFebo, Deutsch New York CEO, who Baker will report to.

While at JWT, Baker lead the strategy department on brands like Rolex, Johnson & Johnson, Nestle and Kleenex, and is credited for some of the agency’s award-winning work including “The ReActor” for Tribeca Film Festival and “The Fin” for Northwell Health.

“Great creative and great strategy are inseparable,” Deutsch New York CCO Dan Kelleher added in a statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to partner with Matt and take Deutsch to the next level.”

Deutsch New York has been searching for a new CSO since Andrew Dawson, the most recent person to hold the position, left in January.

“Beyond their well-known creative track record, Deutsch has had the vision to consistently invest ahead of the industry in areas like creative development, in-house production, AI and media–something that is incredibly rare in our business,” Baker said. “I couldn’t be more excited to join this team.”

Before joining JWT’s New York shop, Baker was at MDC Partners’ Anomaly, where he served as director of strategy and innovation for Google, Google Glass and Android Wear. According to Deutsch, Baker’s analytics background comes from RAPP, a social and digital-driven shop in the Omnicom Group network, where he once helped craft the strategy for work such as social media gaming for the Travel Channel and micro-documentaries for Viagra.

Lindsay Rittenhouse

@kitten_mouse

Lindsay Rittenhouse is a staff writer at Adweek, where she specializes in covering the world of agencies and their clients.