Graves will lead financial and commercial strategies for the region including client finance, internal and external financial objectives, and exploring new growth opportunities. He replaces Joe Scangamor in the role after Scangamor was promoted to GroupM North America CFO in September. Graves will report to Scangamor and Mindshare USA CEO Adam Gerhart.

“Will is a new-world, inventive CFO—talented, dedicated and brings a real depth of experience and creative thinking to this role,” Gerhart said in a statement.

Graves said, “This is an agency that is provoking change and is growing because of the resulting success. I’m excited to join and become a part of it.”

A 20-year industry veteran, Graves arrives at Mindshare from Dentsu Aegis Network, where he led the commercial finance team across the U.S. as executive vice president. Prior to that, he served as chief financial officer for Vizeum, following a stint as svp, finance at IPG Mediabrands agency Initiative.

Mindshare was named global media agency of record for Lufthansa in November. In June, Allergan shifted its media account to Mindshare after initially selecting Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry as its U.S. media agency of record. Mindshare also introduced NeuroLab in 2019, an internal lab that utilizes neurological data to measure audiences’ responses to ads.

Stan Richards, who founded the independent agency 43 years ago, has appointed Glenn Dady as his successor. According to the agency, 87-year-old Richards “has no plans to retire,” but is handing over management duties to Dady.

Moving forward, Dady will serve as principal and creative director, and will be responsible for managing day-to-day operations at the 750-person agency. He will assume his new role on Jan 1.

Dady joined the agency 39 years ago after graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design. Most recently, he served as creative group head and art director at The Richards Group. During his tenure at the agency, he’s received honors from the likes of The One Show, the Clios and Cannes Lions. He currently works with clients including Go RVing, the Biltmore Estate, NatureSweet, Sub-Zero, Wolf Appliances, Jeep, Ram Trucks and Alfa Romeo.

“Now is the time to name my successor, while I’m still active and engaged in the business,” Richards said in a statement. “Glenn has been by my side for nearly four decades and has played a critical role in making The Richards Group what it is today. He has always been one of the most innovative, imaginative creative leaders of the agency—but maybe most importantly, no one has done more to identify and nurture the talent so critical to the work we do than Glenn.”

Since its founding, The Richards Group has become known for its steadfast independence and longtime relationships with clients. The agency served as Chick-fil-A’s creative agency of record—and developed its iconic cow campaign—for 22 years, but their relationship ended in 2016 when the account was handed to McCann New York. The Richards Group has served as Home Depot’s creative agency of record since 1993, and has worked with Motel 6 for 34 years.

“Obviously, we’ll remain fiercely independent, as Stan has always intended,” Dady said in a statement. “It’s such a luxury not to be concerned about shareholders, numbers or politics. And continuing to have Stan in the office every day is the ideal situation for me—being able to bounce ideas off him and go to him for advice and counsel. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Dady will not take financial ownership of the The Richards Group. A spokesperson for the agency said “like all of our employees, Glenn shares in agency profit, a highly lucrative, 100% agency-funded program we have had for decades that is unique in our industry.”

The news comes on the heels of another high-profile exit at the agency, as Justine Armour, ecd at 72andSunny in New York, moved to Grey New York as CCO.

Cartwright joined the agency in November 2017 after serving in the same role at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. He was the founder of Union Made Creative, which was acquired by BSSP in 2016.

Prior to his almost two years at BSSP, the Texas native had creative stops at the Martin Agency, Wieden + Kennedy, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Ogilvy & Mather, where he spent six years, ending his tenure as a senior art director.

Highly respected in the industry, Cartwright has touched a number of major brands including GE, Nike, Lego, Jordan brand and more.

Cartwright is also a key leader in the Saturday Morning collective as a founding member when it launched in 2016. The group, that includes Geoff Edwards, ecd at TBWA\Media Arts Lab; Jayanta Jenkins, ecd at Cheil Worldwide; and Jimmy Smith, has worked with brands like Spotify and, most prominently, P&G.

At this year’s Cannes Lions, Saturday Morning debuted “The Look,” a powerful followup to P&G’s multi-award-winning “The Talk” ad that opened up a dialogue about race in America.

The new ad addressed an issue that the collective felt was overlooked.

“I loved seeing [‘The Talk’] out in the world, but something was missing, and that something missing was black men,” said Cartwright in Cannes. “They were visibly absent in this film. For me, growing up with a father who was there, who I admire, and idolized growing up—and having strong black men in my life—it’s important that we tell their story too.”

“We have an obligation as an industry and, Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser [has an obligation] to use our voice and advertising to ensure that we can have an accurate representation of people, a positive representation and also a point of view about certain things so we can eliminate bias and then create acceptance and true equality and inclusion,” added Marc Pritchard, P&G’s Chief Brand Officer.

Armour fills the role previously held by Andreas Dahlqvist before he left Grey New York two years ago to join Nord DDB. In the wake of his departure, Jeff Stamp and Rob Lenois both took on the title of deputy chief creative officer, although the two have since taken on new roles: Lenois recently left to join VaynerMedia as chief creative officer, while Stamp is now chief content officer at Grey New York.

In her new role, Armour will work alongside John Patroulis, who joined Grey two years ago as worldwide chief creative officer. She will be tasked with setting and implementing the agency’s creative vision, overseeing creative development, spearheading the recruitment of talent and guiding new business creative efforts.

At 72andSunny New York, Armour served as executive creative director, where she led the agency’s creative department and oversaw work for clients including General Mills, Diageo, Trojan and Halo Top. Under her leadership at 72andSunny New York, the agency created Halo Top’s darkly humorous “Ice Cream For Adults” campaign, as well as Smirnoff’s global “Infamous Since 1864” film.

“Justine’s fearless creative leaps and brave leadership style helped set up 72andSunny New York with a ton of momentum going into 2020. We wish her nothing but the best in her new role and are excited to see how she’ll continue to push the industry forward,” 72andSunny said in a statement.

Earlier in her career, Armour held creative roles at Wieden + Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and Clemenger BBDO, working with brands including Chrysler, Dodge, Old Spice, Secret, Visa and Mitsubishi.

“Justine brings a deeply impressive creative pedigree, a reputation for work that’s famous in the world as well as in the industry, and a thoroughly modern approach to leadership,” Patroulis said in a statement. “Not every great creative becomes a great creative leader—Justine has proven again and again, on big brands and at great agencies, that she’s both.”

Chief creative officer Icaro Doria, who joined the Boston-based agency two years ago, has been offered a new, yet to be disclosed role within the Havas network. Sean McBride, currently executive creative director at Arnold, will take on Doria’s job.

According to Havas, the moves signal a restructuring that leverages the network’s Village model, which essentially involves housing media and creative under one roof. “The dream is that we have both creative and media for more clients,” Sargent told Adweek in 2017 while discussing the Village concept.

In a statement, Havas said the latest appointments are part of the evolution of its Boston offering, which will seek to unify leadership across Arnold and its media practice. Havas added that the new leadership team, which is being led by Sargent and McBride, will pursue opportunities that bring together media, audience planning, brand strategy and world-class creative.

“We are thrilled to build solutions for clients that draw on the culture of a long-respected boutique creative agency, the national power of the Havas network and the strength of Havas Media Group,” Paul Marobella, Havas Creative North America chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We are committed to the Arnold brand, but we’re equally committed to evolving the Arnold offering. We will be sharing more, including the supporting leadership team, in the coming weeks.”

The hope is that the reorganization will breathe new life into Arnold, which has had a rough go of it lately. Perhaps best known for its Progressive work featuring fictional spokeswoman Flo, the agency has lost a number of clients in recent years, including Jack Daniel’s, Hershey and Carnival Cruise Line.

In September, executive creative director Fred Saldanha left Arnold to join VMLY&R as global chief creative officer on the Colgate-Palmolive account.

In addition to Saatchi, who served as executive director, Lorna Tilbian, Michael Dobbs and Michael Peat are departing. Their departures come amid an accounting scandal, as an independent review by PwC uncovered errors to the tune of 11.6 million euros ($15.3 million).

According to the Financial Times, the accounting irregularities were first noticed by the agency’s former auditors KPMG when auditing the 2018 financial reports in early 2019.

M&C Saatchi also recently lost longtime client NatWest to The&Partnership, which was named the bank’s creative agency of record in November.

“We have accepted the decision of these directors to resign,” chairman Jeremy Sinclair said in a statement. “We are determined to restore the operational performance and profitability of the business.”

Sinclair, who co-founded M&C Saatchi, will remain on the company’s board, as will fellow co-founders David Kershaw and Bill Muirhead, who serve as CEO and executive director, respectively. Finance director Mickey Kalifa is also still on the board.

Haselden may be seen as a calming force coming in to lead the brand, which has been at the center of a deluge of negative press after The Verge published an explosive article about Away’s company culture on Dec. 5, with a particular focus on the actions of Away CEO and co-founder Steph Korey.

The article described a tense and at times toxic atmosphere with demands for employees to work 12-hour-plus workdays as well as on holidays and weekends, Slack channels that berated individual employees in a public forum and restrictions on when employees could take paid time off if performance was not met. The article included several leaked messages from Away’s internal Slack channels, including many from Korey herself.

In a statement to CNBC, Korey apologized for her behavior the day after The Verge’s story was published. “I am sincerely sorry for what I said and how I said it,” she said. “It was wrong, plain and simple.”

As Haselden steps into the CEO role, Korey will be moving into the position of executive chairman and will remain on the company’s board of directors. Korey’s co-founder Jen Rubio will remain in her current position as president and chief brand officer.

Haselden, a retail veteran who has held top roles at Lululemon (where he’s spent the past five years), Saks and J.Crew, where he served as CFO, is a fitting new choice to lead the brand.

“Stuart’s impressive track record in strategically scaling retail businesses and teams offers invaluable expertise as Away enters its next phase of growth,” Korey said in a statement. “I believe Stuart’s leadership, supported by other key executives who have joined Away this year, will have an enormous impact on our business, community and culture, and we look forward to learning from his depth of experience.”

Away has been something of a DTC darling, known for its hard-shell suitcases that include a battery to charge your phone. The brand, founded in 2015, was valued at $1.4 billion in May and announced it had raised $100 million in a Series D investment led by Wellington Management Company. It managed to overcome a major hurdle when the rules around including operational lithium-ion batteries in luggage changed, a move that knocked many of its competitors down as they were able to provide replacement removable batteries for consumers.

The company told The Wall Street Journal that they had been searching for a new CEO since spring 2019, implying that the timing of Korey’s departure is coincidental.

“In just under four years, Jen and Steph have built an exciting and disruptive brand that has redefined how people look at travel. When they first approached me about joining, not only was I overwhelmed by the impressive company that Away is today, but also the huge potential that lies ahead,” said Haselden. “I’m thrilled to join them in leading the team at this critical stage of the company’s growth and to help usher in an era of continued success based on strong leadership and culture.”

Haselden will start in the role at Away on Jan. 13, a spokesperson for the company said.

In Jones’ junior year, a news producer for the CBS affiliate in Norfolk, Va., spoke in one of her classes. Jones said she latched on to the woman because she had her dream job. Later, when they held practice interviews at said station, the connection helped. She recalled: “The hiring manager said, ‘I can’t hire you—you met the producer. She wants to hire you as an associate producer.’ I was hired on the spot.”

In her senior year in 2002, Jones worked overnight to write the two-hour program as morning show producer at WTKR. She attended classes during the day and slept in between. After graduation, she stayed on for a few more years before taking a job as a weekend producer for The Weather Channel. There, too, she “pretty quickly moved up the ranks” to become director of live programming in 2009, overseeing a transition to more newscast-like coverage of natural events.

After seven years of hurricanes, tornadoes and snowstorms, Jones wanted to switch to more traditional news and joined WIS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, S.C. She was news director until NBC called her to New York to be an executive producer for dayside shows at MSNBC. She went on to become managing editor at MSNBC and later was named svp of specials for NBC News and MSNBC in 2017. There, she has overseen the launch of NBC’s streaming news service and the two Democratic primary debates televised on NBC and MSNBC for the 2020 election, in addition to a town hall on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform. She also led Justice for All, a report in which news anchor Lester Holt spent two nights in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola.

Jones said one of the beautiful things about broadcast news is every story—especially during breaking news—is impactful and important.

“Most recently, it’s been the election coverage—the midterm election was the biggest, most complex production I’d worked on to date,” she said. “Since then, it’s the two debates we just did because of the complexity and importance historically. … I’m really proud of that work.”

And 2020 will certainly be a big year for Jones and her team.

“We talk about every big event as being someone’s Super Bowl,” Jones said. “This is our Super Bowl. For everyone else, it’s one night. For us, it’s a year.”

Big Mistake 

Jones missed a story about a murder-suicide when she was the news director of WIS-TV.

“I was juggling too much, I was not paying attention to the police scanners … and we were late to the story,” she said. “I was not delegating well and didn’t really have a process set up to account for that.”

Lesson Learned 

But, Jones said, she learned the importance of having processes to expect the unexpected—and of falling on your sword when you make a mistake.

“I realized once I … looked into my boss’s eyes and said, ‘Here’s what happened, here’s what I should have done, here’s the process in place [to prevent it from happening again],’” she added. “I made it productive.”

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But do names like Bill Bernbach, Leo Burnett, Jay Chiat and David Ogilvy—or the many (still overwhelmingly white and male) creative leaders who’ve come along since—still pack as much motivational punch with today’s rising agency creatives?

The changing nature of hero worship in advertising can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the industry-rattling disruption of the digital age, the changing landscape of leadership that has created client-side superstars and the #MeToo era’s ringing reminders to be careful whom you idolize. The result is a workforce that often seems leery of marketing messiahs. But as talent has shifted its gaze from the leaders of the past to the pioneers of the present, it has also ushered in a new era of inspiration that can be far more personal than old-fashioned idolizing.

Retiring the rock stars

“The ad industry used to elevate people to godlike status,” said Laura Visco, deputy ecd at 72andSunny Amsterdam and industry advocate for diversity. “But at the end of the day, if those people go to the supermarket, nobody will really know who they are. There’s something about that disconnect with the real world that is and was wrong.”

Visco believes the agency world lived too long in its own bubble, artificially elevating the influence of its most loudly opinionated leaders.

“In that sense, the new generations are more down-to-earth,” she said. “They are no longer looking for gurus, and they are certainly not looking for rock stars. Advertising is leaving its microworld and becoming more a part of everyday culture.”

Social media has also closed the distance between leaders and young talent.

“We used to find their wisdom in books, so every word felt etched in stone. They were on a kind of pedestal,” said Alejandro Juli, a rising creative leader recently named vp and creative director of DDB Chicago. “Now you follow your heroes on Twitter, you add them on LinkedIn, you hear them on podcasts, and you might even stalk them on Instagram.”

Early in his career, Juli looked up to a range of creative leaders as icons worth imitating and learning from, and as he worked up the nerve to reach out to some of them in hopes of building a connection, he found it wasn’t so intimidating.

“You can get in touch with anyone through social media, and if you write the right message, you might even get a reply from one of your heroes,” he said. “I know I’ve done it, and I’ve learned that some of mine are simply nice people who were kind enough to give me feedback.”

Seeing yourself reflected

Obviously, it’s not just the access to role models and potential mentors that has changed. The industry has also (albeit slowly) grown more diverse and representative of the young people trying to join it.

When Bozoma Saint John was beginning her career as an agency account executive in the early 2000s, there were painfully few black women active at the levels of leadership she aspired to reach.

“Early on in my career, I was drawn to Ann Fudge, who was the CEO of Y&R,” Saint John said. “She was one of the only women of color in a C-suite position in the advertising industry, let alone in corporate America. I was in complete awe of the journey she took to that role and how she sat proudly within it.”

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Current CEO Jeff Glueck is leaving Foursquare at year’s end to explore new opportunities.

Shim had been founder and CEO of Placed, which was established in 2011 to provide brands with ad-to-store attribution. Snapchat acquired Placed in June 2017, and Foursquare closed its acquisition of Placed from Snap Inc. in June. Placed counts Twitter, Snap, Pandora and Waze among its measurable media partners.

Prior to founding Placed, Shim also held leadership roles at Quantcast, WebTrends and Farecast, the latter of which was acquired by Microsoft in 2008.

“This has been a monumental year for Foursquare,” Shim wrote in a blog post. “I’ve described it as building the ‘100 Club:’ a record $100 million-plus in revenue, $100 million-plus in new investments, reaching 100 million-plus points of interest and 100 million-plus devices measured on a monthly basis.”

Shim and Glueck were unavailable for comment.

Foursquare secured $150 million in funding in May, led by The Raine Group. The company said it will continue to invest in core product offerings including Placed, as well as developer tools, data solutions and its Pinpoint programmatic tool.

Over 1,000 advertisers and brands use Foursquare’s technology, including AccuWeather, Apple, Hilton, Samsung, Tencent, TripAdvisor and Uber, and it counts 18 of the top 20 quick service restaurants and fast casual dining brands among its longtime clients.

Foursquare said it measured more than $3 billion in ad-to-store visits over the past 12 months, representing 250 billion ad impressions.

The company will also expand its commitment to Foursquare Labs, its research and development arm focused on next-generation location technology, which is led by co-founder and executive chairman Dennis Crowley.

Crowley said in the blog post, “It’s been an honor and privilege to work with Jeff. We’ve come incredibly far in the past five years since he joined Foursquare. I am incredibly thankful for the progress we made under his leadership, and I wish him the best.

“As a fellow founder, I have enormous respect for David Shim and his accomplishments,” Crowley continued. “He has passion and vision, and he brings a great energy to the company. I am excited about having him as a partner as we continue to ‘invent the future’ here at Foursquare.”

Glueck joined Foursquare as chief operating officer in June 2014 before assuming the CEO role in January 2016. He came to the company from Opera Software, where he spent one year as executive vice president of operator solutions. Prior to that, Glueck was CEO of Skyfire (acquired by Opera in February 2013) and chief marketing officer at Travelocity.