New York - Kevin Roberts, CEO Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, announces a plan to accelerate Saatchi & Saatchi's growth in The Americas.  Roberts says, "The changes we are making over the next month are exciting and designed to focus our efforts, and our talent, against significant growth opportunities. The changes include a realignment of CEO Leadership in New York and a new CEO appointment for Latin America and Multicultural USA."

Making the announcement this week, Roberts said, "Mary Baglivo has been leading the New York flagship agency, as well as our operations in Latin America, US Hispanic agency Conill, and Canada for the past four years. During this period, the industry and the Agency have experienced significant transformation.  We have strong momentum."

Roberts also shared, "In New York, amidst efforts to accelerate a significant Transformation Agenda, a lot of new business has been won: Global Trident, including all digital work; Kraft Grocery's Capri Sun and Kool-Aid; Chase Sapphire and Ultimate Rewards; and Miller Lite, which completed Saatchi & Saatchi's assignment of the entire family of Miller brands.   We also continue to do stellar work with P&G, GMI, Lenovo, JM Smucker, Mead Johnson, Toyota, Novartis, Mondelez and other clients."

During this period, New York was named Agency of the Year at Cannes, and Mary Baglivo (right) was named Advertising Woman of the Year, and received the AAF's Industry Career Achiever award for Diversity. 

In Latin America, Roberts shared that their business has been very strong.  Creative accolades for their premier agencies have been abundant.  Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi in Argentina was named Ad Age's International Agency of the Year and has performed at the very top of Cannes every year.  Conill was named Multicultural Agency of The Year by Ad Age and has received numerous creative awards.

"We are poised for our next leap," Roberts says. "It is at moments like this that we must build on our momentum and accelerate."

Roberts shared that he asked Mary Baglivo what growth opportunity she'd like to put her focus and energy against. Mary said that she believes that the future of Multicultural America and the Latin American region will be massive growth accelerators for Saatchi & Saatchi, and she has tremendous heart for this challenge that today are not fully mined.

"Much of the growth in global ad expenditure is now coming from developing markets," Roberts added.  "Latin America, like Asia PAC and Eastern Europe, is expanding much faster than the developed world. Zenith Optimedia forecasts Latin America to grow by at least 7.5% per year.  In the US, Hispanics are the fastest growing minority, which will soon be the majority, representing 30% of the US population by 2050, and much more of the youth market."

To achieve this, Kevin Roberts has decided to realign CEO leadership in the Americas as follows.

1. Mary Baglivo will become Chairman and CEO of Latin America and Multicultural. Her remit will be to accelerate the building of the Network offering; optimize talent, continue the start she has made in naming a new leadership team in Mexico, and launching Saatchi & Saatchi Colombia; and ensure it has the strongest Multicultural position in the US. Mary will report to Kevin Roberts and continue as a member of the Worldwide Executive Board. She will move to an office on the 16th Floor in the New York agency and also work from its agency in Miami. Cynthia McFarlane will remain current Chairman and CEO of Conill and President Latin America.

2. Kurt Ritter (right), Chairman and CEO Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and Team One, and member of the Worldwide Executive Board, will add Canada to his leadership. "Canada, like Saatchi & Saatchi LA and Team One, has a very big Toyota business," Roberts said. "Stuart Payne will remain the CEO in Canada reporting to Kurt." Kurt Ritter has been leading the West Coast and the Toyota and Lexus clients for a decade with Saatchi & Saatchi.

3. Durk Barnhill (pictured top), a leader returning to the Saatchi & Saatchi network after twelve years, will join as the New York CEO. Durk will also be a member of the Worldwide Executive Board and report directly to Kevin Roberts. "Durk is a Team Player and Coach," Roberts shares. "I first met him when he was leading our San Francisco agency. He has also lead businesses with Fallon USA where he launched the "Creative Superstar" Campaign for Miller Lite. He was a top soccer player in the late 80's at Trinity College and still plays and coaches every week."

Durk, a native New Yorker, worked at Roberts & Tarlow, Campbell Mithun Esty, Lowe and McCann New York and was head of new business at Mother New York. He has led accounts including General Mills, Nestle, Neutrogena, Coca-Cola Foods, Kraft, Capital One, Applegate Farms, and Johnson & Johnson.  Durk comes to Saatchi & Saatchi from Taxi New York, where he has been their President.