Changes Atop Deutsch’s Los Angeles Production Department

By Patrick Coffee 

More changes have occurred at the Los Angeles offices of Deutsch in recent weeks and months as two of its top producers have left for other agency gigs.

Both VP/executive integrated producer Nathan Pitzel and executive integrated producer Nick Ngai have resigned their positions.

Deutsch declined to comment on the departures, but Pitzel has been director of digital production at TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A. for the last three months and Ngai left for a job at another Los Angeles-based agency.

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In an email, Ngai writes, “My time at Deutsch has been amazing. Deutsch is, and will continue to be an excellent agency to work at.”

The context for these moves is not completely clear: though tipsters describe Pitzel as a leader of the L.A. production team, the two worked on different accounts including Taco Bell, VW, Target and Pop Secret. We hear that the departures were not related to recent changes in the Sprint account. Earlier this year, that client took much of its production work in-house by launching its own studio and hiring a PR veteran to run it. As a result of the change Deutsch had to lay off a number of staffers, many of whom worked in its production department.

Pitzel joined Deutsch in September of 2011 along with Trevor O’Brien, who was recently promoted to partner and chief technology officer. Pitzel was named VP and added an “executive” to his title in 2013.

Ngai came to the IPG shop in 2012 after spending more than 5 years with CP+B, where he also worked on Volkswagen and played a role in much of its digital work for Burger King (but not “Subservient Chicken”).

The most prominent change at Deutsch’s L.A. office in recent weeks was the hiring of W+K’s Jason Bagley to serve as chief creative officer.

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