David Kolbusz, the Bartle Bogle Hegarty creative leader that TBWA\Chiat\Day tried to recruit, has landed at Wieden + Kennedy instead.
TBWA\C\D sought Kolbusz to help lead its office in Playa del Rey, Calif., offering to partner him with Steven Butler, one of three executive creative directors in the office. Instead, Kolbusz will become half of a creative leadership duo atop Wieden's New York office; the other leader has yet to be named.
Kolbusz, a deputy ecd at BBH in London, will join Wieden this summer and work alongside managing director Neal Arthur. The hire fills one of the roles that Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone vacated in November when the duo departed for Barton F. Graf 9000.
At BBH, Kolbusz has been behind some of the agency’s most well known ads in past three years, including “Three Little Pigs” for The Guardian as well as the “Apollo” and “Peace” campaigns for Axe Unilever.
Before BBH, Kolbusz worked as a group cd for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, working on brands like Denny’s, Häagen-Dazs and Logitech. He also worked at Mother in London earlier in his career.
W+K has clients including Delta, ESPN, and Nike—the agency just found its first ads made for Nike on dusty old tapes—and it recently won global creative responsibilities for Gap.