Only a month after MDC completed its deal with Stagwell Group, one of the merged entity’s star agencies, 72andSunny Amsterdam, has brought in Simon Usifo from Ogilvy Germany to take up the role of president, which has remained vacant since Nic Owen, a Brit, quit the agency to become a full time father at the end of 2019.
Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of the renamed Stagwell Inc, pledged that the group would participate in larger global pitches. Presumably bringing on board a WPP ‘grown up’ like Usifo with international experience (he was previously chief client officer and regional business lead for Coca-Cola EMEA) is part of the plan.
In his new role, Usifo will be responsible for leading the Amsterdam office’s business health and growth, as well as its culture. The agency’s clients include Google, The Coca-Cola Company, Zurich and LikeMeat, and it has recently started working with Under Armour, Fitbit and YouTube.
Usifo has also worked at Ogilvy Shanghai, where he was digital strategy director, and at Ogilvy and Wunderman in London, on clients including Sprite, LVMH, Chanel, Philips, Unilever, Nestlé, Huawei, IBM, Ford and Microsoft.
As well as all that, he is an investor and advisor for the upfeel.io, a Paris-based start up that helps companies to take care of the mental wellbeing of their employees.
Usifo said: “72andSunny Amsterdam… is one of the most fascinating creative agencies in the world with extraordinary talent and creative work that makes a real impact… I will always remain grateful for the great time I’ve had with the wonderful people of Ogilvy in the past 10 years, and I am proud of what we’ve achieved together for our clients as a team.”
