Kahn Quits but Stays Close

Harris Drury Cohen partner and creative director Richie Kahn resigned last week, but he’s not going far. In fact, he’s not even leaving the agency’s Fort Lauderdale, Fla., address.
In what HDC founder Stan Harris called “a win-win scenario,” Kahn will form a marketing, creative and promotional enterprise within the agency while maintaining a relationship with the shop as a consultant.
The new entity, Richie Kahn & Co., will allow the principal to pursue nonadvertising ventures while keeping him active on accounts like Wyndham Resorts and T.J. Cinnamons.
Mike Cannon succeeds Kahn as executive leader of the creative de-partment. Cannon, 42, was behind last year’s HDC campaigns for Sea Doo and the NFL’s Florida Panthers.
Kahn, 51, said he had considered leaving HDC for the past few years because of outside interests. He has been involved in the development of “Celebration 2000,” a New Year’s Eve concert in New York. He is also a partner in two Web sites, The Pet Channel and Seniorparent.com, and is working on a theatrical musical as well as a screenplay.
“Richie wants to do things far beyond what an ad agency does,” Harris said. “But we’ll still have the ability to walk down the hall and pick his brain.”
The transition from Kahn to Cannon is the latest sea change at the $104 million shop, which has seen its fortunes wax and wane this year. HDC won the $25 million Levitz business, then resigned the similarly budgeted Celebrity Cruises account less than two weeks later.