72andSunny has promoted partner, chief strategy officer Matt Jarvis to chief executive officer, a role held by co-founder John Boiler since 2012.
Boiler and co-founder Glenn Cole will move into positions as creative chairmen, tasked with setting global creative vision and standards for the agency and driving innovation. Jarvis will partner with chief operating officer Evin Shutt, chief talent officer Sedef Onar and chief development officer Tom Johnstone in leading the agency.
Jarvis told Adweek that this organizational shift has been in the works for some time.
"John, Glenn and I have always been a triumvirate and that's not changing. This is a case of a realignment within our partnership," he said, adding that the changes place each of the three in a role where they can make the largest impact on the agency's business.
Jarvis joined 72andSunny in 2007 and brought with him a resume that included time spent serving as president of Justice Telecom and director of account planning for Deutsch. Since his arrival, the agency has expanded its client roster to include Seventh Generation, Instagram, Comcast Xfinity, Axe Unilever, Ciroc Vodka and, most recently, General Mills.
"We've always been a strategy first organization," Jarvis said. "Our unity between strategy and creative has always been a part of our secret sauce. The fact that I come from a strategy background [and have been promoted to CEO] is less about elevating strategy within the organization and more about recognizing how strategy can be applied to anything and hopefully make it better."
"Matt has always been more than a chief strategy officer," Boiler said in a statement. "He's taken accountability for everything from creative development, to finances, brand management, commercial relationships—all of it."
"Our partnership has always been a little weird for this industry," added Cole. "We have always shared the offices of chief executive, chief strategist, and chief creative, and we'll continue to retain that partnership of unanimity. But Matt's contributions over the years have really outstripped the title and role of chief strategy officer. He is our CEO."
Jarvis says he foresees 72andSunny doubling down on its "aggressive innovation agency" in the years to come.
"For a company whose mantra is 'Born modern,' that puts the onus of changing and evolving along with culture on us. I think we can all agree business culture, culture at large is evolving," he said, adding that the agency will continue to "embrace change, using disruption to create opportunity."