Wieden+Kennedy Portland Brings Back Azsa West as Chief Creative Officer

Creative, filmmaker and artist Azsa West is returning to Wieden+Kennedy as chief creative officer for its Portland headquarters.

First coming to the creative agency in 2006, West will rejoin Wieden+Kennedy in Spring 2023 from Anomaly Berlin, where she’s held the role of executive creative director since 2021. The Wieden+Kennedy alum will also replace Portland’s creative leaders Ana and Hermeti Balarin, as they move to Wieden+Kennedy’s London office in early 2023.

“As we sought out the next creative leader for Portland, we knew we wanted someone specific: someone from and of this place, someone proud of and committed to the city of Portland and someone committed to the work who’s able to keep it simple and focused on ideas over everything. Azsa West is that person,” Karl Lieberman, global chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy, said in a statement. “She loves this place and has helped build it. We’re excited to have her back.”

West is no stranger to the agency’s sense of culture as she was part of its inaugural W+K 12 program—an experimental creative school within W+K, founded by Wieden creative Jelly Helm and licensed through the Oregon Department of Education.

Holding several leadership roles throughout Wieden+Kennedy’s global network, including its Portland, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo offices, West’s 15-plus-year career in advertising has included work that spans the globe on brands such as Instagram, Nike, Air Jordan, Rimowa, Heineken, Sony, Google, Disney, Target and P&G. Throughout her career, she’s also contributed to iconic and award-winning brand campaigns such as P&G’s “Thank You, Mom,” Secret’s “I’d Rather Get Paid,” Rimowa’s “Ingenieurskunst,” Nike’s “Run It” and “Don’t Love Me, Hate Me” and Levi’s “Go Forth.”

By rejoining the agency, West will not only continue to bring her international knowledge to the agency, but as a queer-identified, indigenous person of color, she aims to create culturally impactful work and an environment that promotes authenticity, experimentation and inclusion.

Growth in leadership

As the Balarins move to London, Wieden+Kennedy continues to solidify its office leadership across the globe with permanent creative leader Susan Hoffman returning to the agency’s Portland headquarters as its interim chief creative officer, working alongside Karl Lieberman and Global CEO Neal Arthur to lead the office through the transition and onboard the full management team.

In addition, John “JP” Petty, III will take on a new role as global executive creative director for the agency’s social-first creative studio, Bodega. This move signals the agency’s further expansion of creative social offering, which has seen significant growth expanding to multiple Wieden+Kennedy offices.

With a global expansion of accounts like AB InBev, Samsung, Ford and McDonald’s, the growth of Bodega and the addition of new clients, Wieden+Kennedy aims to continue its growth with its client relationships and tap into more shared talent across the network to bring more international perspective.