Hasta La Creative!

Less than two weeks after we first reported that Suzanne Michaels left DigitasLBi and was potentially assuming an executive creative director role at Critical Mass, the latter agency has now made it official.  Michaels has indeed joined Omnicom-owned Critical Mass as part of the agency’s  “larger investment in developing talent and creative excellence.” Michaels now joins a leadership team that also includes Amanda Levy, a seven-year CM vet who has now been bumped up general manager (but will continue in her role as SVP/client partner for Nissan and Infiniti North America) and Lisa Penelton, a Razorfish alum who joins CM as  VP/marketing science. Together, the trio will oversee business and operations across CM’s Chicago and L.A. office.

Regarding her new gig, Michaels (pictured right, with Levy), who officially left DigitasLBi on Jan. 6 after four-and-a-half years, says in a statement,  “Agencies everywhere are at a precipice, thinking about who they are and what they want to be. With its expertise in business strategy, user experience and design, Critical Mass is poised to fill a very compelling white space. We can be the partner who helps brands do more than just advertise to people, and become a chosen part of their lives through software, products, and experiences.”

One can say that it’s been a fairly busy start to the year for Critical Mass, which along with its latest leadership appointments, welcomed Huge alums Conor Brady and Chris Hayes as global CCO and CMO, respectively, and is merging its London ops with Agency Republic, effective Jan. 18.

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After getting deluged with tips last night, we’ve received confirmation this morning that Chris Hayes and Conor Brady, chief marketing officer and chief creative officer, respectively, at Huge, are indeed parting ways with IPG-owned agency–each, though, for their own reasons we’ve been told. Here’s a statement from Huge to clarify a bit: “Conor Brady and Chris Hayes will both leave Huge in the new year to pursue other opportunities. They both contributed to what was another record year of growth at Huge where we grew by 40% globally. We’ll be announcing a replacement for Chris in January but don’t see the need to replace Conor at this time. Jon Jackson, who has done an amazing job managing the creative group in Brooklyn, will continue to lead creative in New York.”

No word yet on where either exec is headed to next, but Hayes joined Huge approximately 18 months ago from Y&R, where he spent nearly two years and served in roles including CMO/North America and managing partner/global new business development. Brady (pictured), meanwhile, joined Huge 15 months ago after spending a half-dozen years at Organic, where he last served as chief creative officer. As for Jackson, the executive creative director worked for over a half-decade at Sapient before joining Huge three years ago.

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