There has been a major change at the very top of BBDO Canada. Gerry Frascione, its chairman and CEO, has resigned from the organization. But leadership will fall to a very familiar figure: its former president and CEO Dom Caruso.
Gerry Frascione
“Gerry and I have been having lots of conversations about what’s driving his decision to leave,” Andrew Rorbertson, president and CEO of BBDO Worldwide told Marketing. Robertson said he was grateful for Frascione’s contributions at the agency he helped turn around 13 years ago.
“We were losing clients, people, and money. He led a turnaround… We talked a lot before his decision to leave. I respect it, and wish him the very best of luck in his next endeavour.”
Frascione did not divulge to Marketing exactly what his next step would be, but in a statement said “I have an idea for a start-up in the area where content production and technology meet. Up until now, I have been 100% focused on BBDO. Now it’s time to really start developing it.”
In thanking the “incredibly talented people at BBDO” he’s worked with for more than a decade, Frascione added, “Who knows? BBDO could become one of my new clients.”
In taking over the agency’s presidency, Caruso will lead its Toronto and Montreal offices, as well as its sibling digital agency, Proximity Canada (which has also announced new leadership recently).
This is not the first time Frascione and Caruso’s career paths have crossed. Caruso reported to Frascione from 2006 to 2010 when he was president and CEO of BBDO Canada and Frascione led North American operations from New York.
When Frascione began operating out of the Toronto office in 2010, he told Marketing he wanted to have more direct involvement in its creative output. Things presumably got crowded with two top-level executives overseeing the agency, and Caruso left.
Caruso, who had previously led major agencies such as MacLaren McCann and Cossette, was not long out of work. He joined Leo Burnett Toronto in early 2011 and served as its president and COO until yesterday, when his departure was announced to staff.
“Dom and I re-established contact and I’m happy to say that he was as keen to come back as I was to get him,” said Robertson, who also interviewed others for the position. “I looked around. If you’re going to make a move like this, you want to make sure you’re doing the best possible thing for the agency and its clients. I had several conversations with some fantastically qualified candidates. But in the end I concluded Dom was the guy who was best for us.”
Of his return to BBDO, Caruso said in a statement: “I’m on a mission to build the team and culture that will take full advantage of what BBDO Canada has to offer for its clients.”
As big a shift as this is for the shop, it is the latest in a string of leadership changes. In addition to Adrian Capobianco taking over at Proximity in February, BBDO Toronto recently lost two longtime creative leaders when Carlos Moreno and Peter Ignazi joined Cossette.
On a more global scale, gone is Frascione’s old title of president and CEO of North America. Instead, Chris Thomas (formerly CEO of Asian operations) has assumed the role of CEO of the Americas. Jean-Paul Burge became chairman and CEO of BBDO Asia. Dani Richa has added the agency’s offices across Africa to his Middle East/North African portfolio.
