Effective Feb. 1, current chief creative officer John Patroulis assumes the newly created position of creative chairman, and executive creative director Ari Weiss becomes chief creative officer at BBH New York. The pair, along with North American CEO Pat Lafferty and chief strategy officer Sarah Watson, will make up the core leadership of the agency.
The creative chairman role has been created for Patroulis due to his accomplishments during his almost four-year tenure at the agency, resulting in assorted creative accolades across clients, new business wins, and a trajectory of business growth. Patroulis will be responsible for guiding the overall creative vision, leadership and output of the agency, maintaining an active leadership role on current client work, and leading new business efforts. He will continue to work across a number of creative accounts, and report directly to worldwide CCO Alexandre Gama. In this new position, Patroulis takes on a number of direct reports, including the CCO, the head of integrated production and technology, BBH’s internal Public Relations group, and all future creative capability investments.
Weiss has been at BBH NY for the past four years and has produced some of the industry’s most known and awarded work across clients including PlayStation, AXE, UNICEF, Sprite and The Weather Channel. As CCO, Weiss will be responsible for leadership of the creative and design departments, including recruitment and working closely with the planning, account service and production departments. He will continue to report directly to Patroulis.
After 20 years at BBH, current chairman Emma Cookson has decided to leave the agency to pursue new opportunities. Cookson’s last day at BBH will be February 20. During her tenure at BBH, Cookson has served in multiple key agency roles including global head of strategic planning, CEO of New York, and chairman of North America. Throughout her career, Cookson has helped develop award winning strategies and insights for brands such as Levi’s, Axe, Sprite, British Airways, Vaseline, Ally Bank, Google, and Sony PlayStation.
