According to an internal memo sent to staff by creative chairman John Patroulis and obtained by Ad Age, BBH North America CEO Pat Lafferty and BBH New York CCO Ari Weiss are both leaving the agency.
According to the memo, Lafferty and Weiss are leaving the agency to pursue unspecified, but separate, opportunities. It also states that the agency plans to “immediately start the search for the next CEO,” although the scope of the new appointment will be New York, rather than North America, according to AdAge’s sources. BBH global chief growth officer Mike Densmore will also fill the role of interim CEO during this search.
Lafferty joined BBH in the North American CEO role in May of 2013, following nearly three years at McCann Worldgroup. With McCann he served as managing director, global brand community and then COO, North America. Prior to joining that shop, he spent three and a half years serving as CMO for Travel Channel, following two years as senior vice president, marketing for Discovery Communications.
Weiss was promoted to the chief creative officer role in January, when Patroulis ascended to his current creative chairman role; he originally joined BBH New York in March of 2011 as executive creative director after serving stints in CD roles at BBDO, GS&P and 180LA and writing copy for Cliff Freeman & Partners and W+K.
Patroulis will move back into his former CCO role in addition to his creative chairman duties. “This has the benefit of creating a simpler leadership structure – creative/strategist/account – which has worked out pretty well for BBH throughout its nearly 35-year history,” he wrote in the note to staff.