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Wieden+Kennedy is a place creatives want to work. The global independent agency has landed some of the top talent in the world, thanks to decades of groundbreaking work for brands including Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Samsung and Budweiser. The agency is also known for its culture of creativity, born from its late founders Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, and that wave of creative leadership continues with recent new hires and promotions.
After a few years of changes, including the loss of its founders and the departure of longtime creative lead Colleen DeCourcy—as well as the loss of creative clients including Duracell and TurboTax—Wieden+Kennedy has made some strategic moves to strengthen leadership at its headquarters in Portland and its New York office.
In Portland, Wieden+Kennedy landed a boomerang in Jason White, who will become president. He will lead the office alongside co-chief creative officers Azsa West and Felipe Ribeiro, who comes north to Portland from the W+K São Paulo office.
In New York, global chief creative officer Karl Lieberman has appointed new CCO leadership in creative partners Brandon Henderson and Marques Gartrell, both rising from executive creative director to lead the office with New York president Jiah Choi.
The changes have been made to form a three-person dynamic at each office, which is roughly how Lieberman and now global CEO Neal Arthur ran the New York office when they were ecd and managing director, respectively. They were looking for people who had the right chemistry, drive and resilience to do the jobs.
“We have to make sure that we’ve got people leading these offices that get the place and continue to protect what’s great about it and change what’s not, and continue to evolve upon what Wieden+Kennedy is and how we can still be a great creative company in a changing world,” Lieberman told Adweek.
The new talent will continue to lead the wide client base of Wieden+Kennedy, including new wins like Epic Games and Google Consumer Apps in New York and Eli Lilly, MLB and Allstate in Portland.
A boomerang with brand experience
White spent over eight years with Wieden+Kennedy as an account manager and director for Nike, as well as being the managing director at the Shanghai office. He then went brand side, working for Apple, Beats by Dre, cannabis company Curaleaf, MTV Entertainment and most recently Fanatics, where he was CMO for Fanatics Betting and Gaming.