Today we learned that Matt Bonin, chief production officer at Ogilvy New York, will soon be leaving the agency.
The matters of where he’s going and why remain unknown at the moment, but here’s a statement from Bonin himself:
“After three incredible years at Ogilvy I have received an amazing offer from another company and have decided to leave. Ogilvy is a world-class creative agency with an incredibly bright future and some of the best talent and leaders I’ve ever worked with. I wish them all the best moving forward.”
A recap of his career to date, which includes brief stops at quite a few agencies: after entering the industry as a producer at Y&R, he spent the last half of the 00’s in the head of integrated video role at CP+B. He left that agency to accept the VP/head of video job at production studio Trailer Park, which created the position for him in late 2009; goodness Mfg.’s merger with Trailer Park then allowed for him to work with several of his former Crispin colleagues (most of whom joined Deutsch LA in the hiring spree that followed its recent Sprint win).
Only two months later, Tool of North America hired him as an executive producer — but he ended up spending less than a year there before joining Chiat LA in yet another then-new role: executive director of integration. Bonin’s subsequent move to the East Coast began as a rumor almost exactly three years ago and became official one week later; once again, Ogilvy created the chief production officer role specifically for him.
The same source who alerted us to Bonin’s pending departure hinted at more changes to come within Ogilvy New York’s creative team, claiming that the agency’s recent executive shakeup led to some tensions within the office.
Chris Garbutt, who’d served as chief creative at Ogilvy France, moved to New York for the CCO Ogilvy East role one year ago, and he promoted Corinna Falusi from ECD/partner to chief creative after Calle Sjoenell departed for a gig at Lowe Brindfors in his native Sweden last August. So the agency’s top New York creative officer now responds to its chief East Coast creative, who is also based in New York. (Other easterly offices include those in Atlanta, Washington, Miami, Chapel Hill, and Parsippany, New Jersey.)
Expect to hear more about Bonin’s move in coming days.