Wieden+Kennedy New York Is Under New Leadership

Wieden+Kennedy doesn’t ask interviewees if they think a hot dog is a sandwich, but according to Karl Lieberman, they probably should. The shop looks for people who have strong opinions on absolutely everything, which is why Jiah Choi and Scott Dungate were ideal candidates to lead the New York office. “That could probably be our single interview question,” said Lieberman, who will now only serve as global chief creative officer after also holding this position in the New York office. “The best people at Wieden have a point of view on absolutely everything.” Lieberman will be replaced in his New York role by Scott Dungate, who previously served as executive creative director in Tokyo. Lieberman’s partner, former New York president Neal Arthur, will now also only hold the global leadership role. Arthur is replaced by Jiah Choi, who just stepped down as CEO of Anomaly LA and was a client of Wieden’s when she spent four years at Coke. According to Lieberman, Choi has “always felt like family.” And as a first step, Choi and Lieberman are set out to observe. “It’s all about us going into the office and listening and learning,” said Choi. “I want to know what the secret sauce is, because [Wieden] has been incredible and on fire for the last few years.” Dungate believes that he and Lieberman share a similar leadership style, which he believes will make the change a smooth transition. "Karl and I share certain principals of management," he said. “I think it will be a good handover." Waiting for the right replacement Lieberman also stressed that he and Arthur were never in a rush to replace themselves until Choi and Dungate emulated the energy that they have always tried to bring to the independent agency's Manhattan hub. Choi and Arthur hit it off right away, spending two hours talking on Zoom during their first meeting, and Choi added that mimicking that mutual trust between Arthur and Lieberman is crucial. She said the two will be “a tough act to follow.” “Neal and I were fortunate because we just had really good chemistry right away,” Lieberman said, adding that he saw this potential in the duo right away. “That chemistry is pretty hard to predict and I would say hard to artificially replicate.” At Wieden, finding ideal candidates was also not about poaching people with the most impressive hard skills and résumés. Lieberman believes that Wieden+Kennedy has a certain environment that best welcomes those who are defined by both drive and empathy. He also said that Choi is “funny as shit” and Dungate doesn’t lag far behind. “Scott has incredible taste and creative consistency,” he said, “and Jiah is the perfect mix of massively ambitious and awesome.” Dan Wieden, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein Highlighted in Latest ‘Inspiration’ Documentaries