GLOBAL – AMSTERDAM, MARCH 30, 2012: Independent advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) appointed Clay Mills has been promoted to managing director of W+K Amsterdam effective immediately. Clay replaces longtime managing director Lee Newman, who leaves the agency this week, and will partner with Executive creative directors Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy to lead the office.
“It is always a wonderful thing when you start a search and talk endlessly to all sorts of talent outside of the agency and then comb through the W+K network for potential MDs only to find out that the perfect candidate is sitting there right under your nose. That was the case with Clay. The Amsterdam office has amazing momentum and I look forward to seeing the results of the Mark, Eric and Clay leadership team. Clay has that combination of traits we always look for in an MD – brains, creativity and tenacity,” commented Dave Luhr, W+K Global Chief Operating Officer.
Clay joined W+K Amsterdam in February 2010 as Group Account Director on Heineken Global and Head of Business Development. During those two years he grew the Heineken relationship and expanded it to key markets including Brazil, India and the US, while also leading the multiple award-winning Heineken ‘Open your World’ campaign (‘The Entrance’, ‘The Date’, ‘Serenade’). He was instrumental in the expansion of W+K Amsterdam’s client roster with GE Middle East, and Russia’s Beeline.
“W+K Amsterdam is an enormously talented, capable and always curious bunch of people. I’m excited to help strengthen the agency’s leadership position – creating outstanding and diverse work for great brands that travels anywhere,” said Mills.
Prior to W+K Amsterdam, Mills worked across a range of domestic and global business, working at JWT New York, and BBH in New York and London.
His experience includes a breadth of categories spanning FMCG, to Drinks to Automotive. Clients included Johnson & Johnson, Diageo, DTC (formerly DeBeers), the World Gold Council, Britvic, The Coca-Cola Company, Audi and LG Electronics.
Executive Creative Directors Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy conclude “Spending the last two years making the Heineken work with Clay has been one of the more enjoyable experiences of our careers. You have to work with people who make work feel more like having fun. That’s when the best stuff happens. Of course, you can’t have fun without being dead serious and smart about what you’re doing. A balance that Clay gets as good as anyone.”
