TBWAWorldwide has promoted Rhonda George-Denniston to chief learning and development officer and Monica Torres to executive director, global recruiting.
Both are new roles for the company and signal TBWA’s commitment to attracting, growing and retaining the world’s best creative talent by offering an employee experience that places a premium on learning, development and growth.
As chief learning and development officer, George-Dennison leads TBWA’s talent development strategy, ensuring key talent is retained and thriving throughout their careers. Focusing on a systematic and interactive learning approach, she will advocate for individual growth plans, while leading TBWA’s signature learning and development programs, which span the full career lifecycle from entry level to the C-suite.
Since joining TBWA in 2001, George-Dennison has risen the ranks at TBWA, bringing years of experience and knowledge to TBWA and the people across the collective. In the last year, to create greater access to learning and development, she spearheaded the launch of TBWAU–the company’s open-access learning platform–which is open to all and enables anyone to take control of their own career journey.
“Rhonda’s mission is to help people be their best selves,” said Amie Miller, chief talent officer, TBWAWorldwide. “Her energy, entrepreneurialism and ability to truly listen and foster a deep sense of connection have been invaluable to the people of our collective always, but especially over the past two and a half years. She continues to innovate and to tirelessly advocate for our people. At a time when people want different things out of their work experience and have changing aspirations, having Rhonda at the helm is even more critical.”
George-Denniston added, “Over the years we have meticulously crafted a portfolio of development initiatives for our people. Today, it’s a new frontier in preparing our pirates to be future-ready; it’s challenging, it’s exciting, and I’m looking forward to working with my team, our leadership team and members of our collective to continue the work of expanding growth opportunities for our people to be life-long learners, thriving personally and professionally at TBWA.”
Torres joined TBWAChiatDay NY in 2017 to lead the agency’s recruitment efforts. She has been integral in leading the agency’s effort to make the recruitment processes more objective by conducting extensive interviewer training and changing the company’s interview process to reduce bias in hiring.
In her new global role, she will lead TBWA’s high priority global searches, support global client talent needs, and lead the agency’s strategy for global talent mobility, ensuring the best talent can grow in the collective by having access to open roles across markets, disciplines and geographies.
“Monica understands the dynamics of an agency, clients and brands, and what makes for highly effective and fulfilled teams,” added Miller. “One of her gifts is to look outside of the conventional path to find talent in a parallel but different industry who would thrive in our creative organization. She understands what motivates people, and her rigor, positivity and dedication is unparalleled.”
Earlier this year, TBWA’s proprietary Future of Creative Work research found that compared with the general employee benchmark, the industry’s creative talent are significantly less likely to be satisfied with their work/life balance (55%, compared to a 64% global benchmark), and more likely to feel burned out or discouraged. George-Denniston and Torres will work with Miller, along with the collective’s talent leads and executive leadership, to drive the company’s employee experience agenda to meet the needs of modern talent.
