Changes are being made at the top of the DDB Chicago team, as the agency is promoting Sandra Alfaro to president to join chief creative officer, Rodrigo Jatene and chief strategy officer, Milo Chao on the leadership team.
The move was announced by DDB Chicago CEO Andrea Diquez, who will be leaving the agency on November 1 to pursue a “unique opportunity,” according to an agency statement.
Alfaro was most recently head of business leadership at the agency. She will team with Jatene and Chao, as the three have been instrumental in revitalizing and continuing to grow the agency.
“Sandra, Rodrigo, and Milo have been an integral part of our network since day one,” said DDB North America CEO and president Justin Thomas Copeland in a statement. “While we are sad to lose Andrea, she has completed her brief and has set the agency up for great success under the partnership of this trio.”
Copeland continued that Alfaro, Jatene and Chao have been key to the agency’s new business success, driving a 25% growth rate over the past year and raising the bar on creative as well as earning accolades and growing clients’ brands.
In 2022, in addition to bringing home awards from D&AD and One Show, DDB Chicago earned 10 Cannes Lions across six different projects for brands including Skittles, Coors Light, Twix and Miller Lite. Recent new business wins include Reynold’s Consumer Products (Reynolds & Hefty), Bimbo Bakery (Arnold Bread) and Orkin Pest Control.
DDB Chicago was also just picked to oversee brand creative and paid marketing strategies for Oma Fertility, a fertility clinic that combines AI and robotics in the lab and human-centered care in the clinic.
“It’s been such an honor to be able to work with this team every day, as we make amazing award-winning work for some great clients. We have a lot to be proud of over the past year, and I can’t wait to see where we go from here,” said Alfaro in a statement.
Diquez came to DDB in May of last year and helped pull together the current leadership team. No specifics were given by the agency about her upcoming new opportunity.
Jatene will continue to lead the vision, culture and creative product as CCO.
“Creativity of all forms has always been and will always be the heart and soul of everything we do, and I’m excited to continue to write the next chapters of this legendary agency as it evolves into a future-forward creative powerhouse alongside Milo, Sandra, and the amazingly talented team we’ve built together,” Jatene said in a statement.
Chao will continue to oversee strategic functions for the office’s portfolio of clients.
