Wieden+Kennedy New York has poached David Kolbusz (left) from BBH London to be its new ECD, replacing Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal who quit to join Barton F. Graf 9000 in November.
Kolbusz, a Canadian, was deputy ECD at BBH. At the London agency he worked on the agency’s prize-winning ‘Three Little Pigs’ campaign for The Guardian and Axe, among others. He started at TBWA in Toronto and then worked at Goodby Silverstein and Mother London. Earlier this year he was tipped to join TBWA in the US in a senior role.
Wieden & Kennedy co-global ECD Mark Fitzloff (there are a lot of ECDs around these days) says: David is one of the most exciting creative leaders working today. He’s also a smart, funny, quirky guy who seems tailor-made for the culture of Wieden+Kennedy.”
BBH will be disappointed, although hardly alarmed, that one its stars is decamping to one of its biggest creative rivals. The agency has made a habit of replacing such losses fairly seamlessly although that task may become harder now that the agency is wholly-owned by Publicis Groupe (and therefore scheduled to become part of the merged Omnicom/Publicis) and long-serving CCO and founder Sir John Hegarty is expected to depart this summer.
