There has been a shakeup at the top of the R/GA leadership team, as the IPG agency elevated Tiffany Rolfe to chair of R/GA. The news comes as CEO Sean Lyons departs the agency for Accenture Song, where he will take on the newly created role of global capabilities lead.

Robin Forbes, currently global chief client officer at R/GA, will step up to become interim CEO at the agency. Rolfe and Forbes will both report to IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky.

Rolfe adds to her position as global chief creative officer and expands her responsibilities to include company vision, culture and business leadership as chair of R/GA.

“I wish Sean all the best in his next opportunity and I’m proud of what we have built over the last five years—during a time of tremendous change for the industry and the world,” said Rolfe in a statement. I’m honored to take on the additional role as chair and build on the recent changes that we have begun to implement with our new ‘Distributed Creativity’ model. In partnership with Robin and the rest of our terrific leadership team, we will continue to define an exciting future for our clients, and for R/GA.”

Sean is a formidable force and someone I have admired professionally for a long time.

David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song

Rolfe joined R/GA in 2018 as U.S. chief creative officer. In 2020, she was named global CCO. Rolfe previously spent over six years as partner and creative lead at consultancy Co:Collective, and prior to that, she was at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, Los Angeles and Boulder. Rolfe is on the board of One Club for Creativity, the Ad Council’s creative committee and Meta’s creative council.

Forbes, who was named global chief client officer last year, has held a range of leadership positions during his nine years at R/GA. He’s been responsible for growth, operations, and new business development for some of the agency’s largest clients, including Verizon and Samsung. He also served as managing director of the agency’s New York office, after which he went on to oversee the company’s U.S. region.

Lyons will lead Accenture Song’s global capabilities and be responsible for elevating the creative output at the consultancy as well as its design, technology, communications and intelligence capabilities.

“Sean is a formidable force and someone I have admired professionally for a long time. He’s as talented and relevant as he is humble and sincere,” said David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song said in a statement.

Lyons will report to Droga and join Accenture Song’s global leadership team. He will be based in New York City. 

“We thank Sean for his leadership and commitment to shaping R/GA into the recognized leader it is today and wish him well going forward,” said Krakowsky in a statement. We’re also very much looking forward to supporting Tiffany, Robin and the leadership team at R/GA as they continue to define what the future of marketing can look like with work that creates valuable human experiences and taps into the potential of emerging technologies for a great portfolio of clients.”

R/GA has been through numerous changes over the last year. In June 2022, the agency laid off about 5% of its New York office. In November, the agency announced that it was closing its Hudson Yards office space in New York City as well as its office space in downtown San Francisco as part of a larger restructuring, moving away from its city model in the U.S. and implementing a country model with five disciplines powering the business. In December, the agency promoted Shannon Washington to chief creative officer in the U.S. R/GA was also named creative AOR of Mattress Firm.