12393: White People Shuffle At Y&R.

Advertising Age reported Y&R California tapped a White man—Ronny Northrop—to serve as the agency’s Chief Creative Officer. The hire sorta offsets Y&R New York’s appointment of a White woman—Leslie Sims—as its Chief Creative Officer. Actually, Northrop’s elevation upsets the gender progress at Y&R, as he replaced a White woman. Y&R Chicago, however, recently replaced its White man CCO—Bill Cimino—with a White woman and White man. So things are kind of balancing out, except for the fact that all the CCOs are White people. At Y&R, CCO stands for Caucasian Creative Officer.

Y&R California Names Ronny Northrop Chief Creative Officer

Appointment Is Third Chief Creative Change in a Week at WPP Agency

By Maureen Morrison

Y&R California has named Ronny Northrop its new chief creative officer.

The San Francisco office of the WPP network is the latest Y&R shop to make creative executive changes at the top in the last week. Earlier this week, Y&R’s New York office named Leslie Sims chief creative officer, and last week, the agency confirmed that Bill Cimino was leaving his post as the top creative in the Chicago office. Rather than being replaced by one chief creative, Mr. Cimino is being replaced by co-executive creative directors Pam Mufson and Jeremy Smallwood.

Mr. Northrop, who will oversee all creative at the 40-person office, replaces Mimi Cook, who is leaving to pursue other interests, according to the agency. Mr. Northrop has been an executive creative director at Y&R California since the fall, when he was promoted after joining Y&R a year ago as a freelance creative.

“Since joining our team last year, Ronny has had a dramatic impact on our culture and creative output,” said Y&R California President Mike Reese, who was named president in 2013, the same time Ms. Cook was named chief creative . “Not only is he passionate about our clients’ businesses, he is a big believer in the power of creative to accomplish good, which is an ethos he has infused throughout our agency.” Clients at Y&R California include Chevron, Citrix, Crystal Cruise Lines, Sandisk and Blue Diamond’s almonds, as well as Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze and Nut Thins.

Other agencies Mr. Northrop has worked at include Omnicom’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he worked in various creative roles from 2005 until 2011 on clients like Anheuser Busch, California Milk Processors and Comcast. Prior to that, he worked at MDC’s CP&B from 2002 to 2005 on brands such as Burger King, Mini and Molson Canadian.