President Brian Dunbar, a 7 year veteran of independent El Segundo agency David&Goliath, left that shop last week.
His departure came about two months after that of CMO Stephen Larkin, who left to become executive director of growth at the L.A. office of R/GA.
Agency founder and chairman David Angelo confirmed the change in a statement:
“For the past 7 years, Brian has helped us do some amazing things at David&Goliath. We wish him well in his new endeavors as he seeks to strike the right work/life balance. We will be naming his replacement and a few other key management hires over the next few weeks, as we continue our quest to become a purpose-driven agency.”
One current employee told us that Dunbar offered his resignation to Angelo but declined to elaborate.
The outgoing president has spent more than 30 years in the agency world, working in accounts at DDB before becoming an associate partner at Goodby Silverstein and later co-founding MUH-TAY-ZIK|HOF-FER. He joined D&G along with its first CMO, Claudia Caplan, in a late 2010 hire.
In summer 2014, Angelo stepped away from the president and chief creative officer roles to serve as chairman of his agency. In the process he promoted Dunbar to president and Colin Jeffrey to creative lead.
Dunbar’s departure is the latest in a series of leadership changes at D&G starting with last November’s announcement that Jeffrey, chief digital officer Mike Geiger and chief strategy officer Seema Miller would be leaving to launch their own shop, Wolfgang L.A. Stagwell Group, run by former Bill Clinton advisor Mark Stagwell, later devoted an unspecified amount of capital in the new “startup” operation as part of a wave of agency investments.
At this time it’s unclear why Dunbar left, where he will be going and what Angelo’s work/life reference means.
As noted in the quote, there should be staffing news to come from David&Goliath.