McCann announced that Dan Donovan will return to its New York office as an executive creative director.
Donovan arrives at the agency from CP+B, where spent the last three years and change, rising to the position of vice president, executive creative director. While with the Boulder-based agency he led creative on the agency’s “Captain Obvious” campaign for Hotels.com and worked on accounts including Microsoft, MetLife and Charles Schwab.
He originally joined McCann New York back in November of 1998 as a creative assistant. In early 2000 he made the jump to copywriter, working on accounts including Sprint, TGI Friday’s, Rubbermaid and Black & Decker before being promoted to creative director in January of 2004. As CD he worked with clients including ESPN, Lowe’s, Verizon Wireless, MLB and Avis. In May of 2008, McCann promoted Donovan to the role of senior vice president, group creative director. In the role, he continued to work with Verizon, while his other clients included Staples, Weight Watcher for Men and the U.S. Army. He left to accept a creative director position with CP+B in 2012.
“Years ago, when Dan left McCann, he quickly became ‘the one that got away,'” McCann New York co-chief creative officer Sean Bryan told Adweek, adding that Donovan is “a great creative with brilliant ideas.”
“To welcome him back to the McCann family is really exciting for all of us,” he concluded.
Donovan’s is the latest in a string of recent departures for CP+B under the leadership of recently-appointed global CEO Lori Senecal and Chuck Porter, including the exits earlier this month of CEO Andrew Keller and executive creative director Evan Fry. On the creative hiring front, CP+B recently picked ECD Kevin Jones in L.A., Robert Lund in New York and Gustavo Sarkis in Miami.
It also poached Mekanism’s Eric Zuncic to run strategy for North America in July.
In returning to his previous agency, Donovan joins McCann’s newest group of creative leaders: North American CCO Eric Silver (Silver+Partners), EVP/ECD Grant Smith (BBDO) and ECD Caprice Yu (Sid Lee).