Doner Detroit executive creative director Steve Silver is leaving his position with the agency to go freelance, a move he says will allow him to spend more time with his family after spending over three years commuting to Detroit from Chicago.
Silver joined Doner in June of 2015 following a little over two years as an executive creative director with Leo Burnett Detroit, where he focused on Chevy Silverado. His arrival at Doner came after Leo Burnett Detroit lost the Chevy Silverado business to Commonwealth//McCann that March. While with Leo Burnett Detroit, he worked on the Silverado relaunch campaign in 2013, Chevy’s cancer-themed 2014 Super Bowl ad “Purple Roads” and a campaign promoting the Detroit Institute of the Arts.
A 30-year industry veteran, Silver began his career as a copywriter with Y&R Chicago in 1984. After stints as a copywriter with Y&R and other agencies, he made the jump to associate creative director with Team One in early 1989 and remained in the position for five years, leaving in 1994 to become group creative director with Hal Riney & Partners in San Francisco. Two years later he became an executive creative director with Saatchi & Saatchi San Francisco, working on brands including HP and Sony. He left that position five years later to become group creative director with Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, focusing on the agency’s UPS account.
For Doner, Silver’s departure follows a series of staffing cuts last November after former client JCPenney chose mcgarrybowen as its new creative agency of record.
An MDC Partners spokesperson confirmed that Silver is no longer with the agency.