BBH Global CEO Neil Munn departs in agency shakeup

BBH’s Global CEO Neil Munn is to depart the Publicis Groupe agency as part of a worldwide shakeup that will see it appoint a new global board and renew focus on creativity.

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The board will be run in partnership by its chair, Annette King, CEO of Publicis Groupe U.K., together with Joakim “Jab” Borgström, BBH’s worldwide chief creative officer, who will also continue to run the agency’s global creative council. Borgström was elevated to the worldwide chief creative officer role after the departure of Pelle Sjoenell in 2019. King joined Publicis in 2018 from her role as CEO at Ogilvy. Both King and Borgström are based in London.

The board will also include other BBH leaders, including: Karen Martin, CEO of BBH London; Amani Duncan, president of BBH USA; Arto Hampartsoumian, managing partner and executive chairman of Publicis Groupe China; Christine Ng, chairwoman, BBH Singapore and China; Sid Tuli, managing director of BBH Singapore; and Adam Arnold, global chief marketing officer of BBH.

According to Publicis Groupe, the new board will allow flexibility for each agency to operate under its own P&L in respective markets, rather than under a global P&L as before. In a press release, Publicis also stated that “a new protocol will be implemented for the future of the BBH brand, with a clear commitment to, and focus on, BBH’s creative prowess with greater opportunities for the network’s talent.”

The announcement comes after a turbulent couple of years for BBH, particularly in the U.S. In July,  BBH merged its New York and Los Angeles offices, along with BBH Entertainment, into a single BBH USA unit as L.A. office CEO Frances Great and Chief Creative Officer Ned McNeilage departed. In 2020, the US agencies laid of 20% of staff due to the pandemic.

In the U.K., the shop has held onto longstanding client Audi in a recent review and successfully repositioned the Tesco brand, but it has also lost some key accounts in the last decade, including Johnnie Walker to Anomaly in 2014 and Absolut Vodka to Ogilvy this year. But while it once reigned creatively supreme in London, in recent years it has failed to shine at awards festivals such as Cannes.

Munn, who had been in his post for seven years, and with the agency 15 years, will remain in the role until the end of this year to ensure a full transition.

“Leading BBH globally for the last seven years has been an absolute privilege, but I have decided that now is the right time to step back and let others carve out the next part of BBH’s future,” he said in a statement. “I will leave feeling very proud of the fact that we have kept the unique BBH brand thriving and intact, alongside being the IPA’s Effectiveness Company of the Year for the last four years in the U.K., being recognized as Ad Age’s International Agency of the Year in Singapore, and playing a key role in the fortunes of our many clients’ brands, perhaps most notably with the impressive turnaround of Tesco.”

“BBH is a creative jewel and an iconic company," added King. "I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead the new board in partnership with Jab. Our focus will be creatively driven from day one, across all of the markets BBH is in. I would like to thank Neil for his leadership of the brand over the past years.”

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BBH's original founders, John Hegarty, Nigel Bogle and John Bartle, also commented in a joint statement: “As the founders of this company it is very simple. At BBH it is all about the work. All roads must lead to better work. The prime responsibility of this new board must be to make the work better and better and available across multiple markets.”