There are changes at the top of DDB Chicago as the agency has promoted Kiska Howell to evp, head of business leadership, overseeing leadership and growth for the region’s largest office. This comes shortly after the agency named Emma Montgomery CEO, taking over from Andrea Diquez, who left late last year to become global CEO of Gut. Sandra Alfaro, who was DDB Chicago’s president has departed the agency.
Howell, who specializes in integration with cross agency disciplines, was previously evp, executive business lead on the Molson Coors account and before was svp, group account director. Prior to joining DDB Chicago in 2019, Kiska held several account management roles at agencies including FCB Chicago and Dieste, Inc.
Howell will join Rodrigo Jatene, chief creative officer, and Milo Chao, chief strategy officer, as part of Montgomery’s leadership. Montgomery returns to Omnicom as CEO of DDB Chicago on July 24.
Montgomery comes to DDB Chicago from Leo Burnett Australia. She was previously TBWA’s global co-chief strategy officer and Leo Burnett Chicago’s president and CSO.
Alfaro was named president in October of last year.
DDB Worldwide had success at Cannes, being named 2023 Creative Network of the Year. In addition, DDB New York recently merged with adam&eveNYC to form a new creative agency called adam&eveDDB while hiring Digitas president Caroline Winterton as its new CEO.