Hal Riney

We received word straight from Kristi VandenBosch herself that the exec is leaving Publicis & Hal Riney/Publicis Modem.  VandenBosch as you may know served as CEO of the agency and spent nearly a year working in the leadership realm alongside Kevin Roddy, the former BBH creative boss who joined Riney last year as CCO. VandenBosch originally joined Riney in 2009 from Tequila and led the agency alongside Roger Camp.

Here’s her full note below:

“I’m planning on leaving Riney in mid-February. I actually decided to leave back in September, but agreed to stay through the end of the year. We were very fortunate that [chairman] Harold Sogard was willing to come out of what was surely a glorious sabbatical to join Riney at that point, which gave us a significant transition period in which to migrate my responsibilities to him. He’s a fantastic leader for Riney, and I’m delighted I got to spend four months working closely with him.

Now that everything’s pretty much off my plate, I can move on my plan to return to Los Angeles. While I’ve had some initial conversations with agencies in the market there, one of the main reasons I’m excited about returning is to help one of my closest friends launch her magazine, Dame. Dame has been her mission and passion for the past five years, and it’s going to be a fantastic adventure that I’m thrilled to be a part of.

I’m sure I’ll find my way back into the agency world at some point; I love this business and the people in it, and I’ll always jump at the opportunity to helm a great shop. It’s been such a privilege to work at Riney – the people are truly amazing, and the culture is one of the most special I’ve ever been a part of. I wish them enormous success in the future, and will always be proud to be a Riney alum.”

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Publicis & Hal Riney, which recently welcomed former BBH NY creative boss Kevin Roddy as its new chairman/CCO, has confirmed that it’s cut a handful of staff. The San Francisco-based agency tells us, “We unfortunately reorganized five great people out of jobs when we combined a number of Modem and Riney departments to create integrated teams.” The staff count at Riney currently stands at 105.

 

Roger Camp, who was appointed CCO at Publicis & Hal Riney in January 2007, is slowly “phasing out” his role according to sources familiar with the matter. Camp, who was a CD at Fallon and W+K prior to consulting with then joining Riney.

According to CEO Kristi Vandenbosch , “Roger Camp has been slowing phasing out of his role as ECD at Publicis & Hal Riney. He was looking for a more flexible work arrangement, for personal reasons. Over the course of the summer, as he stepped back from the day-to-day direction of the department, the senior creative teams stepped up and continued to lead the work without a hitch.

Roger [stated] our ultimate plan would be to replace him in the ECD position. We’ve got a short-list of candidates that we’re in conversations with, and I expect to have a new creative director in place before Roger is ready to step out completely, probably sometime this fall.

Our clients are aware of the plan, and while we’re all big fans of Roger, they’re comfortable with the transition. (Just as an fyi, our current client roster includes U.S. Cellular, Walmart, HP, Compaq, Electronic Arts’ Pogo.com, WET Design and Chimay Beer.)”

More: “TBWA’s Julie Liss Heads to Hal Riney as Chief Strategy Officer”

Yesterday we reported that TBWA promoted Dan Goldstein to director of planning, but what we didn’t know was who he was succeeding. Today we’ve learned he’s taking over for Julie Liss, who left the shop to join Publicis agency Hal Riney and former Tequila-er Kristi Vandenbosch, sources say. Vandenbosch was became CEO of Riney in May of this year.

According to one source, “The K-J duo have been directed to rebuild Hal Riney to its former glory.”

As Kiran noted in yesterday’s piece, Liss is yet another TBWA staffer to leave the agency in recent months (that we’ve heard about). Included in that list are Hashem Bajwa, who was with Chiat for six weeks and Al Kelly who left after three months. Last week we heard rumors that a number of mid-level creatives have also left the place behind, without work no less &#151 but that tidbit is yet to be confirmed.

A TBWA representative declined to comment on Liss’s departure. Hal Riney/Publicis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More: “TBWA\Chiat\Day LA Promotes Dan Goldstein to Executive Director of Planning”