R/GA is now looking to fill its two biggest creative roles: global chief creative officer and U.S. chief creative officer.
These vacancies, of course, follow the departures of global CCO Nick Law for Publicis in January, followed by those of U.S. co-CCOs Chloe Gottlieb and Taras Wayner in May and this week, respectively. She went to Google and he’s headed to Saatchi & Saatchi.
To announce the latter’s departure today, U.S. president Sean Lyons sent out an all-staff email confirming that Richard Ting will continue to lead U.S. creative in the meantime and, in a larger sense, that R/GA is in the middle of some big changes as Bob Greenberg looks to staff up the next generation.
The big question now: who will fill these roles? Is it just us, or is the list of likely candidates looking shorter and shorter?
Hi everyone,
Today, I want to share with you that Taras Wayner has decided to leave R/GA. He is joining Saatchi New York as their CCO. Taras has expressed a desire to manage a smaller team and get closer to the work. This opportunity allows him to do both. We fully support his move and want to express our sincere thanks for all the energy, effort and craft he has dedicated to R/GA.
During his nearly 12 years at R/GA, Taras has spearheaded some of our most award-winning projects and mentored some of our best and brightest talent. We will of course miss his contributions to the work, but more importantly, we will miss his incredible contributions to our culture and our people.
We wish Taras the best in his new role and trust he will bring his signature combination of rigor and humor to the team at Saatchi NY.
R/GA is going through a significant period of change. Losing people is never easy, especially when they’ve been part of R/GA for so long. Change is hard. But change also opens up the opportunity to rethink our approach, empower our talent, and look for new talent that will continue to build on and diversify our strong creatively driven culture. Bob and I agree that this culture is evident in the creative leadership we have in place across the network.
To ensure we continue to drive this culture and evolve our creative vision at R/GA, leadership at the global and regional level is essential. With that in mind, I want to let you know that we have officially begun a search for a new Global CCO, and for a US CCO team. We are looking both inside and outside of R/GA and your regional and local creative leadership will play a large role in helping to find and attract our future creative leadership.
In the meantime, Richard Ting will continue to act as interim US CCO.
If you have any questions, please feel reach out to me, Bob or the creative leaders in your office.
Best,
Sean