Wieden + Kennedy appoint Ian Tait as executive creative director
Wieden + Kennedy London have announced that their current executive creative director (ECD), Kim Papworth, is to stand down this September to make way for his counterpart Ian Tait, who previously served as global ECD for W+K and was most recently ECD at Google Creative Lab.
The changeover will leave Papworth performing a senior creative role within the advertising agency, maintaining continuity of a 13 year career there.
Tait will report directly to W+K global ECD’s Colleen DeCourcy and Mark Fitzloff while partnering with ECD Tony Davidson to lead the agency’s creative output.
Tait co-founded London digital agency Poke in 2001, prior to joining the W+K fold in Portland as global interactive creative director from 2010-2012. During this time Tait made his mark with a key role in some of the agency’s most celebrated campaigns such as Old Spice Responses.
DeCourcy said: “Tony and Iain's partnership, following on from mine and Mark's last year, is evidence of the way W+K continues to evolve. Bringing Iain's talent back into the fold helps us reach our goal of providing real leadership to creatives who work with technology, full stop. Flying in the face of industry claims that Silicon Valley is stealing our best talent, it would seem that we are more than holding our own.”
Tait Added: “I'm really thrilled to re-join the W+K family. Especially to be part of the London office with shedloads of amazing talent, great clients, positive momentum, and Tony Davidson. Plus, being back in a land where I can say things like 'shedloads' without getting puzzled looks is quite nice too.”