New York’s Lowe Profero, which now reports to the larger Mullen Lowe Group following this May’s IPG mega-merger, has named a new creative leader for the Americas.
Rahul Sabnis joins the shop from 360i, and he will work across its client roster. He replaces ECD Damian Claassens, who will continue to work at Lowe Profero as a creative director and consultant but will no longer hold the ECD title.
The official word from the agency is that Claassens’ role is changing so that he can spend more time with his family.
Native Australian Claassens joined what was then simply Profero in 2011 after spending time in the creative departments of AKQA and Publicis Modem, where he led the LG account as SVP/group creative director. He was one of the founding members of the AKQA New York team, helping to develop its digital practice while creating work for Coca-Cola, Kraft, Nike, Google and more. Earlier gigs include design and CD positions at the Sydney offices of Ogilvy and Leo Burnett.
Sabnis creative spent five years in leadership roles within the Havas organization, ascending to the integrated ECD position before departing along with fellow creative George Simpson in 2012. (Simpson now writes copy for Prudential and freelances with various agencies in the New York area.)
He became group creative director at 360i the following May, and during his tenure there he led work for such clients as Canon, Autotrader, H&R Block, Fisher-Price and Kelly Blue Book. Earlier in his career he founded a digital marketing consultancy called NewMantra and served as ACD at Digitas, working on the CNN, Samsung, GameTap and AmEx accounts.
Regarding the new job, he writes:
“I’m thrilled to be joining Lowe Profero at such a unique moment in time. Very few agencies offer a complete set of integrated disciplines, from broadcast to social, and a global footprint.”
Sabnis reports directly to Lowe Profero CEO of the Americas Aaron Reitkopf, who says that this change was at least a year in the making.
“We spent a year looking for the right balance of collaboration and creative talent. Watching Rahul these first few weeks, I’m confident we’ve found that…and more.”
The release tells us that Sabnis’ appointment follows several major hires in Lowe Profero’s New York and San Francisco offices but does not clarify which positions were filled.