Jim Elliott will soon be leaving the Arnold organization after serving as global chief creative officer for just over two years.
Parent company Havas does not plan to name a replacement, and Elliott did not issue a statement or any information regarding another position. The news would appear to be the latest development in the holding company’s ongoing plans to consolidate its global network by region.
From an Arnold spokesperson:
“Jim Elliott is stepping down as Global Chief Creative Officer of Arnold Worldwide. During his two years at the agency, Jim made a tremendous impact to the agency in many ways, especially in the top talent he attracted and the great work that he helped deliver across our clients. We truly appreciate his contributions and partnership.
We’re fortunate to have an extremely talented group of Executive Creative Directors who drive our creative product and serve as an important partner to clients on all of our accounts. They will continue to play the role of creative steward across our client portfolio. We wish Jim all the best for the future.”
Those ECDs include managing partner Wade Devers, Translation vets Mathew Jerrett and Tim Flood (who joined the agency in fall of 2016 on Hershey), and James Bray, who recently moved East from M&C Saatchi L.A. to run the Carnival account. All had been reporting to Elliott.
The move also comes just a couple of weeks after Havas announced that former Chicago CCO Jason Peterson would effectively lead all the Havas U.S. creative agencies, with Windy City chief executive Paul Marobella managing Arnold global CEO Pam Hamlin and Havas New York CEO Laura Maness.
Multiple parties tell us that Elliott chose to leave of his own accord due to this restructuring and that the move had been coming for some time. For the moment, Arnold will go without a CCO, global or otherwise.
A number of longtime Arnold veterans have left the agency in recent months, among them managing partner Don Lane (who went to DraftKings), managing partner/executive director Barbara Reilly and SVP, marketing director and head of new business Michael Shonkoff (who joined Lane at the fantasy sports company). All three had been with Arnold for more than 20 years.