Jack Neary has returned to work in the Canadian marketing industry at TBWACanada, taking the chief creative officer title at the Toronto office.
Neary had spent 10 years at BBDO Canada (another Omnicom-owned agency), but left his role as vice-chairman and chief creative officer in early 2008 to join its New York office as worldwide creative director for BBDO’s Procter & Gamble work–dominated by the Venus, Braun and Gillette brands, although P&G added the Art of Shaving upscale retail assignment and the FutureFriendly sustainability initiative during Neary’s tenure.
In February, P&G creative oversight went to Toygar Bazarkaya, formerly of BBDO Dusseldorf.
Neary went on sabbatical in April to pursue personal artistic projects, but it was uncertain whether he would return to BBDO.
In a February release, David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO Nother America, said, “At BBDO the cement never hardens; the idea is to stay liquid and keep finding new unexplored ways to do amazing things for our clients.”
Today’s announcement reunites Neary with TBWACanada president Jay Bertram, who worked with Neary at predecessor agency ChiatDay, and then again at Cossette.
“When Tom Carroll [president, CEO of TBWA Worldwide] asked me to come to TBWA eight years ago, he told me I had to go find my creative partner,” Bertram said. “I told him that could only be one person: Jack. But at that time [Neary] was fully ensconced in BBDO. We’ve been talking through the years, but the timing has never really worked out for a lot of reasons. Now we have a chance to do something we’ve dreamed of for a long time.”
“I guess you could say I’ve come to my senses,” Neary said. “I marked my 30th anniversary in the business and went to [BBDO] and talked about taking a sabbatical… but I knew I’d eventually want to get back into [an agency]. That’s when Jay called me. I said ‘We need to make this happen. We should have done this 10 years ago.’ “
Neary is still technically on sabbatical and does not officially begin at TBWA until Sept. 1, though Bertram said there will likely be some consulting going on in the interim.
TBWA has seen significant changes to its senior staff this year. Neary steps into the role formerly held by Anthony Wolch, who joined the agency in June 2009 as executive creative director, but had left by January to join Organic. In March, Tasha Dean was hired as director of digital media arts, and Trevor Campbell joined as director of earned media.
