Highdive names its first CEO

Highdive has named Megan Lally, co-owner and managing partner, as its first CEO. 

Lally will also continue to lead operations, account management and strategy at the independent agency, which she helped start seven years ago.

“Megan has always been the leader of this company, and now we’re making it official,” Chad Broude, Highdive co-chief creative officer and co-owner, said in a statement. “Our late partner, Louis Slotkin, used to whisper ‘smartest person in the room’ about her. He was right seven years ago, and he’s right today.”

Prior to starting Highdive with Broude and Mark Gross in 2016, Lally worked in leadership roles at Leo Burnett and DDB, where she created campaigns for Allstate, Donate Life America, Capital One, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev and State Farm.

Lally said she will be dedicated to protecting the culture of the Chicago-based agency, which has grown from 20 people at its founding to 100 hybrid-working employees today.

“It’s really about how we stay Highdive-y and focus on the things that attract people to work here with us,” Lally said. “But also scaling and building processes when not everything can be organic.”

The Chicago-based agency, which is known for its succession of Super Bowl ad hits, has scaled rapidly. Highdive’s revenue jumped 20% in 2022 and is said to be on track for double-digit growth again in 2023. It has picked up clients including Dollar Shave Club and State Farm, with nearly all of the agency wins starting from client referrals, Lally said. 

“There are some clients that we have that are brands within larger portfolio companies,” she said, mentioning Frito-Lay, Airheads, Jeep and Boost Mobile. “We do great work with that client and then they say good things about Highdive. It really comes down to good work, and the way it feels working with us begets more of that.”

Maintaining healthy relationships with staff also means leaving clients when the fit isn’t right. In the last year, Highdive ended its work with insurance provider The General, “because it didn’t live up to our promise of healthy agency [and] client relationships—a commitment that we’ve promised to our people,” the agency previously said.