Accenture appears to have encountered a small bump on the road to destroying all agencies forever.
Donna Tuths, the managing director and global head of digital content who is credited with helping turn Accenture Interactive into “the world’s largest digital agency,” announced her departure last week in a note to colleagues.
“I want you to know that I am leaving Accenture. There is never a right time to say goodbye or a ‘good’ way to say it,” she wrote. “In more than 10 years with the firm, I have had the great fortune of working in the CMT OG, the Products OG and Accenture Interactive.”
The note also mentioned her role in “build[ing] a new capability in the firm around Content,” stating that “Our leadership team is strong, and I … have faith that [senior managing director] Brian Whipple will continue to lead AI to exciting places.”
In a follow-up note, Whipple himself told staff that Tuth would be leaving to pursue other opportunities, which we hear to be a similar leadership role at an Accenture competitor.
“Donna has been a key senior leader in Accenture Interactive for many years and has built the Content practice into a powerhouse, industry-leading team,” Whipple wrote. “She has also brought some great people into the team. Her accomplishments at AI are vast and numerous, and she deserves a tremendous amount of credit for being such a huge part of AI’s success.”
He then announced that Jamie Posnanski, who has been a managing director at Accenture’s Charleston office for the past several years, will be promoted to global content practice leader.
Tuths is a veteran of “traditional” agencies who previously served as North American president and, later, global CEO of Ogilvy’s health practice, Healthworld, as well as president of Organic and managing director of Y&R in New York.
A 2016 Forbes profile positioned her as a leader in the consultancies vs. agencies movement, noting that she was inspired to leave the agency world when mentor and former Ogilvy CEO Shelly Lazarus stepped down from that role. In a subsequent Contently interview, she said that “[clients are] starting to see the folly in trusting their brands to short-term, campaign-driven partners.”
[Pic via Forbes]