Last week, Huntington Beach-based INNOCEAN named a new leader: Timothy Blett, former senior partner/president at Doner.
Blett will be EVP/managing director, a newly-created role that will see him “overseeing the agency’s disciplines and driving its continued growth.”
Blett spent a majority of his career with Doner, joining the agency to work on new business development back in 1986 before some of our readers had even been born. After 25 years with the company, he decided to sell his interests and step down from his role in June 2011 according to a memo from Rob Strasberg and David DeMuth. While the agency didn’t confirm it at the time, we heard that his departure was directly related to Doner’s loss of the Mazda account. (The client did keep the “Zoom Zoom” tagline.)
Following his departure, Blett served as a partner at eMaxx and LCX Digital, two marketing/consulting companies based in the Newport Beach area. He will now report to INNOCEAN USA CEO Tony Kim, who writes:
“INNOCEAN USA is growing rapidly, and we’ve grown significantly since we opened our doors five years ago…Tim is the perfect match for our culture and business foundation, and his values closely align with our mission to operate at the highest levels of creativity, collaboration and efficiency.”
From Blett himself:
“INNOCEAN is a young, vibrant agency that has experienced exceptional growth in the last several years. I feel privileged to have an opportunity to contribute to the agency’s continued growth and help move the business forward.”
Over the past few months, we received several tips claiming that INNOCEAN COO Brad Fogel‘s role had changed and that he would be focusing on recent win NRG and other accounts rather than that of the agency’s biggest client, Hyundai. A source close to the matter, however, tells us today that Fogel will retain the COO title and that his position within the agency will not be affected by the Blett hire.
Fogel, who held senior management roles at FCB, Y&R, Hill Holliday and others, served as president of Grey West, Atlanta and San Francisco before joining INNOCEAN in 2013.