Young & Rubicam starts the New Year with departures and promotions. New co-executive creative directors and a new global talent director were announced to succeed two executives who left the agency over the holidays.
Creative officer Bill Cimino, who agreed to parting ways with the agency and left immediately thereafter, was replaced by international award-winning creative directors Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson. Creative partners for 13 years, they joined Y&R in 2011 after working at mcgarrybowen and Leo Burnett.
They will report to report to Y&R Chicago president Kary McIlwain and Global CCO Tony Granger and lead the agency’s creative team across all accounts, including Barilla, Bel Cheeses, Butterball, BMO Harris Bank, Carfax, DoubleTree and Famous Footwear.
“For four years, Jeremy and Pam have contributed to some of our agency’s best creative work,” notes McIlwain. “They have wonderful ideas on how to grow our clients’ brands and improve our creative processes, and I can’t wait to see what they do.”
Winners of Cannes Lions, One Show, London International Awards and others, Smallwood and Mufson’s creative contributions were a major factor in the Chicago Advertising Federation’s decision to name Y&R Chicago its 2014 Agency of the Year.
Alexis Gianoulis succeeds Global Director of Creative Talent Michele Daly, a move Granger calls “a natural transition as (he) has been part of my global team working alongside Michele Daley for the past few years.”
Daley left the agency to rejoin Saatchi & Saatchi New York as Chief Creative Talent Officer. She’d previous worked at Saatchi from 2004 to 2008 as Worldwide Director of Creative Talent.
Cimino in late 2012 replaced Y&R CCO Bob Winter, who left to join CP&B Miami and now partner/ECD at VSA. He had started his career as a copywriter at DDB in 1993.
