FCB Chicago has announced the appointment of Pedro Pérez as Chief Creative Officer.
The appointment follows the promotion of Andrés Ordóñez to Global CCO, as Susan Credle begins her transition into a historic new role as the first-ever Creative Advisor for IPG, announced last month.
As Chief Creative Officer, Pérez will be partnering closely with FCB Chicago CEO Kelly Graves and FCB Chicago Chief Strategy Officer Mollie Partesotti to lead the network’s largest office. He will also be a key member of FCB’s Global Creative Council, collaborating with creative leaders from across the globe to continue to elevate the work across the FCB network.
A creative leader with over 20 years of experience, Pérez is an endless advocate of curiosity, who believes that ideas never die, and great ones have the power to transform societies. His creative philosophy centers around being consistent at being different — an attitude he has brought to some of the world’s leading brands such as Bayer, Brown-Forman (Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester, Woodford Reserve), Disney, Mars-Wrigley (ALTOIDS, Extra, ORBIT) and Principal Financial, inspiring them to show up differently and to ultimately help them on their path to creative excellence.
He joins FCB from Dentsu Creative, where he was Chief Creative Officer for the Chicago office, overseeing creative operations and contributing to the strategic execution of Dentsu Creative’s global initiatives. During a successful tenure, Pérez helped launch Scrolling Therapy, an AI tool that utilized facial recognition to allow Parkinson’s patients to exercise using social media, and led the Chicago office into the Top 10 rankings at Cannes Lions (#6 in the U.S. and #8 in North America). Prior to joining Dentsu, Pérez spent three years as Chief Creative Officer for Energy BBDO, where he was the creative lead behind Extra gum’s “For When It’s Time” campaign, which celebrated the world opening back up post-pandemic.
“At FCB, we’re on a mission to bring together the best creative talent in the industry and prove that creativity is an economic multiplier,” said Andrés Ordóñez. “Pedro’s experience delivering incredible creative work that has led to brand fame and business growth makes him the perfect creative leader for FCB Chicago.”
FCB Chicago has seen tremendous growth in the last year, adding several of the world’s leading brands to their client roster including Danone, Terminix and the United States Postal Service, and growing business organically with their long-standing clients, including Cox Communications, Prestige and The Clorox Company. The agency also played a key role in IPG being named lead creative partner for Pfizer in one of the industry’s largest reviews of 2023.
“We’re extremely proud of the success FCB Chicago has seen over the last year, but we also recognize that this is a journey that is Never Finished,” commented Kelly Graves, CEO of FCB Chicago. “As we look to the future, we will continue to develop the incredible creative platforms we have built in partnership with our clients, and I’m confident that Pedro is the right creative leader to take FCB Chicago into its next era of creative excellence.”
Throughout his career, Pérez has won over 60 international awards, including a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, D&AD’s coveted Graphite, Yellow and Wood Pencils, Grand Effies, and multiple Gold, Silver and Bronze trophies across leading festivals such as The One Show and the Clio Awards. Pérez has also been recognized by the likes of The Drum, named among the World’s Most Awarded Chief Creative Officers (most recently at #18 for the 2023 award show year), and made Adweek’s Creative 100 in 2019.
“FCB is where it all started for me. My very first creative opportunity was working as an intern at FCB Puerto Rico during college, which helped me land my first job as a junior copywriter,” added Pérez. “While I’m coming back in a more senior role, my sense of curiosity remains the same. I’m excited to immerse myself into the business and inject this inquisitive mindset across the agency to help clients find the new and unexpected, positioning FCB Chicago as the gold standard for how creativity can be a force for growth.”
Pérez was born in Puerto Rico, the most beautiful island in the world (in his unbiased opinion). He’s proud to be a CCO, a husband and a dad — though not always in that order.
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