DDB names Diane Jackson new chief production officer

Diane Jackson

DDB Chicago’s award-winning Diane Jackson was elevated to the newly-created and wider-ranging position of Chief Production Officer, from EVP/Director of Integrated Production.

She has headed an award-winning production team since rejoining the agency in 2007 and will continue to report to DDB CCO John Maxham. 

Agency president/CEO Paul Gunning says of Jackson, “Not only has Diane been critical to sustaining DDB Chicago’s growth and profile in the industry, but she has also been formative in strategizing for the entire network. Her influence will continue to permeate the company both locally and globally.”

Earlier, Jackson, a Brit by birth, had been with DDB from 2000 to 2003, when she led an international campaign for Exxon Mobil, which at the time was the largest production in agency history.

She left DDB to join Energy BBD0 as head of production for four years. “I felt those years at Energy set me up for something bigger and on a global scale,” she said at the time she rejoined DDB and began expanding its broadcast production department across multiple platforms.

Tim McGuire, whose Cutters Studios has long worked with DDB, is a fan of the new chief production officer. “Diane has been outstanding since Day One,” he says. “She is so knowledgable and interested in the growth of media and how the agency should be aligning itself to it.  She never looks at anything in an obvious way and always takes a creative approach to her personnel and the agency business as a whole.”

Jackson began her ad career at DMB&B in London, followed by stints at McCann Erickson and production company Berry & Coutts.  She also produced work for the BBC’s Ch. 4. In Chicago, she produced for Dennis Manarchy and Backyard Productions.

In addition to her many agency achievements and awards, Jackson is the recipient of the Distinction in Advertising award from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, London. She received DDB’s Fasules, Sharpe, Yovetich Leadership Award in 2010, the first producer ever to receive that honor.

In 2012 Jackson served as a judge at the Cannes Lions Advertising