Adweek reported DDB North America CEO Wendy Clark hired the company’s first Chief People Officer—Britt Hayes—who just happens to be a White woman. Perhaps the title should really be Chief White People Officer. Prior to joining DDB, Hayes worked for other White advertising agencies. Her new role includes overseeing diversity initiatives. Based on the exclusivity at DDB, handling the diversity duties shouldn’t exceed 1% of her professional time.
DDB North America Names Its First Chief People Officer
Britt Hayes will report to CEO Wendy Clark
By Erik Oster
DDB North America hired Britt Hayes to fill the newly-created position of chief people officer.
In the role, Hayes will oversee talent and development programs, diversity initiatives and recruitment, working closely with leaders from the network’s 17 North American offices while reporting to DDB North America CEO Wendy Clark.
“At the very core of our business is people. Nothing works in our agencies, or in our industry for that matter, without talented people and the bright ideas and brilliant work they create,” Clark said in a statement. “Britt is a proven and accomplished business leader. Her ability to identify, nurture and develop talented people to create the best work of their careers is exactly what was so compelling about having Britt join us at DDB. I am genuinely delighted to welcome such a talented woman and leader to our executive team.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining DDB at such an exciting time,” Hayes added. “Wendy, Ari and the leadership team have such a clear vision for the modern agency model, and I’m honored to be part of building a team with so much momentum behind it.”
Hayes joins DDB from Grey Group, where she has spent a little over a year serving as executive director, creative management, following over five years with JWT as director of creative management and head of creative talent. She arrives at DDB with 18 years of related experience, and she was named on The Adweek 50 list of top influencers for 2012 while at JWT.
Hayes’ appointment follows the arrival of Ari Weiss as DDB North American chief creative officer in December and the announcement last month that Toygar Bazarkaya would join DDB’s dedicated McDonald’s unit, We Are Unlimited, as CCO beginning on May 15.
2 comments:
So it is your conclusion that because she is a white woman she necessarily isnt fit for the role? People are people.
As someone who saw up close how ineffective DDB's diversity "efforts" were and are, I can surmise that this new woman, white or not, will be just as useless as everyone else at DDB.
DDB's tactic is to talk about diversity, promote the idea of diversity, send out press releases and tweets and social media posts about diversity, and then do not a single damn quantifiable thing.
Sure, they host events and talk a big game, but at the end of the day that's all it is. Hot air. Only white women advance over there, no matter how much rah rah diversity talk they spew for public benefit.
To give but one of many examples of how utterly useless DDB's diversity initiatives have traditionally been, they "hosted" (& I use the term loosely) a diversity showcase a few months ago strictly to impress clients and have something to put in the annual report, but neglected to follow up with any actual results afterwards.
Worse, they invited diversity representatives as proof of how much DDB cares about diversity, not realizing they'd invited people of color who reached out to the agency repeatedly and were blown off. The emails flying back and forth behind the scenes pointing out the hypocrisy of DDB wanting them to show up to prove DDB's corporate commitment to diversity while the agency itself couldn't have cared less was comedy gold.
This new woman being hired is simply more of the same. There for show so DDB can tell clients and potential clients how much they stand behind vague diversity ideals, which will tumble like a house of cards if anyone cares to ask for proof of who besides white women get hired, promoted, utilized or given opportunities at DDB.
Post a Comment