CEO Gwyn Jones, who spent an impressive 27 years in various roles at BBH, will step down almost exactly two years after Publicis took full ownership of the agency. He will be replaced by current BBH COO/former Unilever marketing heavyweight Neil Munn (above).
Adweek tells us that the move came as something of a surprise, but BBH chairman Simon Sherwood explained everything, saying that the agency chose to continue the trend of hiring CEOs from the client side because Munn “has proper marketing and comms pedigree” and he’s “highly commercial with a deep understanding of client organizations.”
As a reminder of the departing Jones’s leadership style, here’s his extensive note on a round of layoffs that occurred in 2012.
In Cannes news we missed, this announcement also taught us that Jones and the BBH team recently helped launch a production studio with Scooter Braun, otherwise known as the man who should be Justin Bieber’s legal guardian.