sparks & honey, Omnicom’s (NYSE:OMC) cultural intelligence consultancy, has added Davianne Harris as chief client officer and head of the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) practice. In this new dual role, Harris will be charged with overseeing the client strategy team, overseeing business transformation projects, and continuing to grow the consultancy’s DE&I practice. She will report directly to and work closely with founder and CEO Terry Young.
“There is a deep and genuine understanding that diversity, equity, and inclusion are foundational to sparks & honey’s success, and the success of our clients moving forward. The only way to help clients and team members continue to grow is by dismantling systemic racism, so it made perfect sense to blend these roles,” said Young. “As a company, we have created a Diversity Operating System to authentically and purposefully implement work in this space, guiding our clients to do the same.”
Harris has spent the last 12 years building and leading strategy teams, tapping into the power of culture to drive impact for her clients, and partnering with global brands like Nike, Google, Vans, Coca-Cola, Target, Red Bull and Disney to future-proof their business and brand models. She joins sparks & honey from Oberland where she served as partner, head of strategy, a role she ascended into after just 10 months with the agency. In that role, she built out the strategy department, secured numerous new business wins for the agency, and led the launch of the agency’s DE&I program, OBER-CHANGE, designed to educate and drive action towards equity internally.
Her passion sits at the intersection of cultural insights, brand creativity and building systemic equity, which she will now use to manage client relationships while driving forward all client-facing DE&I initiatives at sparks & honey. She’ll be working with all of sparks & honey’s clients across different workstreams such as: business transformation, research & development, merger & acquisition strategy, C-suite insights & services, culturally resonant marketing & communications, as well as DE&I strategy.
“The events of the past year have brought us to an inflection point. Organizational growth now requires an investment in social change, and that begins with staying ahead of the cultural curve. As chief client officer, I will be partnering with business leaders to address complex challenges and drive sustained relevance while maximizing opportunities for organic growth,” said Harris. “I am thrilled to also be spearheading the growth of sparks & honey’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practice through the development of innovative frameworks and AI models which are critical to delivering systemic change.”
Harris has made major strides in her career and as an advocate for women, BIPOC individuals and the creative class. While at Oberland, she co-authored its inaugural 2021 Purpose Forecast, a report on how brands can integrate impact into the DNA of their work beyond 2020, and the Purpose Tracker, a live roundup of brand campaigns taking a stand for causes greater than themselves. Prior to that, she worked at CASSANDRA, where she led brand strategy and client services a portfolio of Fortune 500 brands.
Harris is also a board member of Family Promise, a nonprofit tackling family homelessness, and an advisory board member of Creator Force, an organization working to expand and diversify the creative class by offering education, inspiration and access to careers in creative fields. Earlier this year, she also joined CHIEF, a private network built to help get women into leadership positions and keep them there.
