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Grey’s leadership team has grown by three, with the promotion of longtime executive Jason Kahner at the global level and the hiring of Thiago Cruz and Alba Anthony at the New York office.
In addition, Amber Guild has resigned from her position as CEO of Grey New York after a year. Guild was formerly with The New York Times T Brand.
“Grey New York has been made what it is today and will continue to be because of the compassionate, innovative and creative individuals who work here—having had the opportunity to work with this team has been both a pleasure and an honor. I leave Grey in excellent hands with the new global leadership and our dedicated and talented New York leadership team,” Guild said in a statement.
Guild has apparently joined McCann New York as CEO, according to a report by Campaign.
Kahner, who has been with Grey for nearly two decades, has been promoted to global chief client officer, a newly created role at the agency. Kahner will be responsible for building and growing client relationships and will lead teams across the global network. Kahner oversees Grey’s top 20 clients globally and will add leadership of the Grey New York office, following the resignation of Guild.
“Jason’s dynamic and commercially savvy. He’s got highly diversified experience and clearly proven track record for cultivating purposeful innovation and delivering transformative growth,” Laura Maness, Grey’s global CEO, told Adwek.
Maness went on to say that Kahner will also continue to serve as executive sponsor over several of the agency’s global clients, which includes Grey’s health and wellness division. Under Kahner’s leadership, health and wellness became WPP’s fastest growing health company, which prompted Kahner to be named to the Adweek 50 list in 2021.
Cruz joins as chief creative officer at Grey New York, effective Dec. 1, reporting to Grey global CCO Javier Campopiano. Cruz has been global executive creative director at AKQA and has developed work for clients including Diesel, AB InBev, Heineken, Motorola, American Express and KFC. Originally from Brazil, Cruz spent over 15 years working for agencies including BBDO, Pereira O’Dell, Publicis and Ogilvy. He has won more than 30 Cannes Lions and seven D&AD Yellow Pencils.
“What I love about him is he has a really diverse experience,” Campopiano told Adweek. “He’s been many different places in many different markets, always making a great impact.”
Campopiano and Maness also touted Cruz’s diversity of thinking, his leadership skills, his entrepreneurial spirit, his charisma and focus.
“He has a combination of ambition and humbleness that that is hard to find,” added Campopiano.
Anthony joins Grey New York as head of people, effective January 2023. Having previously served as HR director of AKQA, Anthony returns to lead the people function, with a focus on Grey’s employee experience and the company’s commitment to fair, equitable, responsible and sustainable growth. Anthony’s responsibilities include designing programs for rewarding and recognizing existing talent, increasing retention through borderless creativity and mobility, attracting future employees, and continually helping people learn and grow as leaders. Anthony was previously with Bleacher Report as HR director and also held positions at Fusion Media, CBS Interactive and the Weather Channel.
Kahner’s promotion and the hiring of Cruz and Anthony are part of the growth Grey and the greater AKQA Group has seen over the last 18 months. Grey has won over $70 million in new business during that period, with new clients including MassMutual, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Modelo and the Coca-Cola company as part of the WPP win.
“It’s an exciting inflection point for Grey…This is all about clarity, and cohesion, having no daylight between our strength and leadership team, as we focus on delivering on our promise of ‘Famously Effective’ ideas for brands that truly want to create cultural value and accelerate their growth,” said Maness.
An eventful summer at Grey
Grey has undergone a leadership overhaul over the past five months. In July, Maness replaced Michael Houston, who WPP elevated away from Grey to become the holding companies’ first North America president.
The agency also saw numerous departures among its creative leaders, with global creative chairman John Patroulis and New York CCO Justine Armour, leaving the agency for personal reasons in July. Shortly after, executive creative director Andre Gray joined Havas agency Annex88 as its chief creative officer.
On the leadership team, Debby Reiner retired from her role as the global client lead for Grey Worldwide, as well as the global client lead for the agency’s longstanding P&G account. Kahner replaced her before being elevated today to global chief client officer, while Stacey Shelly leads the P&G account specifically.
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