Kevin Roddy Shifts to Publicis & Hal Riney

Last year Kevin Roddy, the former CCO of BBH New York, fell out with agency founder John Hegarty over the future direction of the shop and left in September. But now he's returning to the corporate fold, joining Publicis Groupe San Francisco sibling Hal Riney this week as chief creative officer.

Roddy will partner with Riney CEO Kristi VandenBosch in running both Publicis & Hal Riney and Publicis Modem, a new arrangement for the digital shop. Publicis Modem will remain a separate entity taking on agency of record clients in addition to working with marketers aligned with Riney. The agency works with clients like Hewlett-Packard, U.S. Cellular, Walmart, Paypal, Compaq and LG.

Roddy succeeds Roger Camp, who left the agency in August and has since started a new shop, Camp+King, with former Riney colleague Jamie King.

Roddy previously worked at Euro RSCG, Fallon and Cliff Freeman and Partners with clients like Little Caesars, Staples, Volvo, Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts, Timberland, Time and Sports Illustrated.

Susan Gianinno, CEO Publicis Worldwide in the USA, said she has wanted to hire Roddy even before he left BBH but couldn't, given Publicis rules about not poaching execs at other Groupe entities. She began a discussion with Roddy earlier this year and had him meet with holding company CEO Maurice Levy, who has known Roddy since his time at Publicis units Fallon and BBH.

“This just seems to fit so well,” Gianinno said. “Kevin loves the potential of a turnaround at the agency, the heritage of Hal Riney, and the digital component that makes it modern and signals a new era at the agency.”