Gut Names Sandra Alfaro Its First US CEO

Sandra Alfaro recently left DDB Chicago without announcing where she might be headed next. The short mystery is now solved as Alfaro has been named the first U.S. CEO at independent agency network Gut, effective Sept. 5.

Alfaro, who had served as president at DDB Chicago since October 2022, now joins her former CEO Andrea Diquez, who stepped down in 2022 to join Gut as global CEO.

In the newly created role, Alfaro will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of Gut’s headquarters in Miami and the Gut Los Angeles office. She will be working with the agency’s global leadership team, especially North America CCOs Ricardo Casal and Juan Javier Peña Plaza; Bruno Acanfora and Ariel Abramovici, executive creative directors at Gut LA; and Carmen Rodriguez, global chief growth officer and partner. Alfaro will report to Diquez and will be based in Miami.

“Sandra is an incredible business leader. She understands where the market and consumers are going, so she is the best at setting up clients’ businesses for success,” said Diquez in a statement. “Also, her integrated thinking amazes me every time. She’s able to merge media, creativity and data seamlessly into the business, and has created models across many categories.”

Alfaro brings more than 25 years of experience across the advertising and marketing industries, with a focus on account management. Prior to serving as president of DDB Chicago, she was the agency’s head of business leadership. During her time there, she helped the agency launch its first dedicated social practice and played a key role in bringing in new business.

Before DDB, Alfaro was at Horizon Media, where she was the first leader of culture-first creative agency 305 Worldwide, a joint venture with rapper Pitbull. Prior to that, she was the managing director of Grey Wing for five years, helping the agency win clients including Pfizer, Papa John’s, Lilly and Nestlé. She began her career at Saatchi & Saatchi and also spent over a decade at The Vidal Partnership, reaching the role of managing partner of the agency.

“The culture of Gut is what most excites me. They are a brave agency for brave clients with clarity on its values of courage, transparency and intuition, which means that Gut knows what it is and what it’s not, which is inspiring,” Alfaro said in a statement. “In my new role, I hope to inspire the U.S. team to continue delivering brave work to its amazing clients, while ensuring the agency operates both effectively and efficiently.”

Alfaro went on to say that she wants her teams to embrace growth as a mindset in everything they do, as an agency and with clients.

In addition to her marketing career, Alfaro earned her professional coaching certification in 2019 and founded Power & Grace, a boutique consultancy offering life and business coaching, corporate training and public speaking.

“After five years of really exciting growth, it was finally time to appoint someone who could help us continue to lead and grow our U.S. offices successfully, which is why we entrust Sandra with this amazing responsibility,” said Anselmo Ramos, co-founder and creative chairman at Gut, adding that having worked with Diquez before made Alfaro a good fit with the team.

The Gut Network has been growing recently, opening up its seventh office in Amsterdam, its first in Europe, earlier this year. The agency also had a strong showing at Cannes Lions, winning a total of 35 Lions, including three Grand Prix, eight golds, 12 silvers and 12 bronzes across its network, and becoming Cannes Lions’ Independent Network of the Year, LATAM Regional Network of the Year, and its Buenos Aires office was honored as its Independent Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year. The agency also landed the business for Vital Farms earlier this year.