Thomas Shim, global creative director on the Dell account at Y&R, is leaving the agency after just under 3 years, a spokesperson confirmed.
According to several parties close to the matter, he has accepted a creative role at Facebook.
Shim joined Y&R in October 2015 to work on Dell, which consolidated its commercial business with the WPP network almost three years earlier (it had previously been with Arnold). Since then he co-led several prominent campaigns for the tech company, including a recent one starring Jeffrey Wright of Westworld.
Global ECD Christian Carl will continue to lead the account in his absence.
Beyond Dell, Shim has also worked on efforts promoting PETA and other clients, but he may be best known for “Pride Train,” a guerrilla effort to give New York City’s subway system a fabulous makeover for Pride Month last summer. The group behind that effort, which included freelance art directors Ezequiel Consoli and Jack Welles, repeated the feat again this year after receiving a good bit of the old earned media.
He joined Y&R after serving as ACD and working on Cadillac and Chevrolet at Brooklyn’s Spike DDB. He’d previously worked at Havas and freelanced at several shops including BBDO, R/GA and Saatchi & Saatchi. In addition to his agency work, he is also an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts, which is where the Pride Train idea was born.
Shim declined to comment for this post.
A Facebook spokesperson has not yet responded to our query, and his precise role at the Zuckerberg behemoth is unclear at this time.
In other Y&R news, the agency spokesperson confirmed that creative director Kate Lummus, who also worked on Dell in addition to Bank of America, MTV and several other major accounts, recently left the agency after more than 5 years. She has not returned emails seeking comment on her current gig.