Grey Group hires FCB's Gabriel Schmitt as global CCO

Gabriel Schmitt, co-chief creative officer at FCB New York, is to become Grey Group's global CCO.

He will report to global chief executive Laura Maness when he joins the business later this year. Schmitt replaces Javier Campopiano, who is moving to McCann.

Schmitt has worked at FCB for 10 years, joining the Chicago office as an integrated creative and vice-president/creative director in 2012. Four years later he moved to the New York office as group creative director and worked his way up to co-CCO in 2020.

In this time he has overseen work such as Burger King's "Whopper detour" and Michelob Ultra's "Contract for change", "McEnroe vs McEnroe" and "Courtside".

Schmitt will continue to be based in New York and work with Grey's global community, spanning more than 50 countries. He will work closely with Thiago Cruz, who joined Grey New York as chief creative officer in December.

Maness told Campaign that the appointment is part of a path to achieve her "North Star" goals, which are: to be recognised as Global Agency of the Year, the most-loved company in terms of employee experience and the best in the world at winning new business.

She added that the business has been creating a "values-led culture of creativity, innovation and impact". These are all traits that Maness said that she was looking for when searching for a new global CCO.

Maness added: "I believe that people take their cues from us as leaders in how we behave and the values of our creativity, unity, empathy and service and Gabriel is one of the most compassionate and inclusive leaders in the business.

"He embodies these values and we are both optimists who believe that if you do good things, good things will happen. We despise hierarchy and bureaucracy, and we know that we'll grow as a by-product of fuelling our people's passions and growing our clients' business."

Schmitt said that his vision for creativity at Grey Group will be to make work that drives business results. He explained: “Grey is consistently – throughout the past decade – one of the best networks in the world with the best client relationships and amazing work across the globe.

“The work that I’m most proud of [in my career over the past few years] are things that have brought amazing business results and are clear and the dial is really there through creativity. If you do amazing things creatively that do not move the needle, it’s not worth it, because we are not doing our jobs.

“If we do effective things that bring results, but you do it through a boring way, a non-emotional way or not an insightful way, then we are also not doing our jobs and, quite honestly, we’ll get miserable and that’s not the advertising we are trying to do here.”

Susan Credle, FCB's global chair and global chief creative officer, said: "I have had the fortunate opportunity to work with Gabriel for the last seven years. It has been a privilege to witness his journey as a human being and as a creative leader in the advertising industry.

"What Gabriel and Michael have accomplished in just three years as co-CCOs has been remarkable. He is leaving the agency in good hands, which is a true sign of a leader."