Leo Burnett USA's Cheryl Berman names Successor

Televisionpoint.com Team
Leo Burnett USA Chairman/Chief Creative Officer Cheryl Berman announced that Leo Burnett USA Executive Vice President/Group Creative Head John Condon, 44, will succeed her as chief creative officer of the Leo Burnett network's flagship agency effective March 2006. The appointment concludes the search announced by Leo Burnett Worldwide Chairman and CEO Tom Bernardin in January 2005.

Berman, 53, will expand her role as chairman of Leo Burnett USA and continue to provide senior counsel on many of the businesses she helped bring into the agency, including McDonald's, Disney, Hallmark and Coca-Cola. She will also focus on new projects, including the innovative Artist in Residence Program she launched earlier this year. She will help target select new business prospects and launch a new endeavor within Leo Burnett that she will lead in 2006. Berman reports to Leo Burnett USA President Rich Stoddart.

"Cheryl has chosen an outstanding successor in John Condon. As one of the largest and arguably one of the most prolific creative departments in the world, this was a very important post to fill, and John is uniquely qualified to fill it," said Bernardin. "Over the past eight years, Cheryl has built an inspiring legacy, and we're happy that we will continue to benefit from her experience in new ways at the agency."

In his new role, Condon will lead the 200-person creative department, continuing to move the department from a culture of advertising to a culture of ideas and providing unity, clarity and constant improvement of the work. Condon will report to Stoddart.

Condon currently serves as evp/group creative head on Kellogg, one of the agency's largest clients, with responsibility for the entire U.S. portfolio of brands. Since he took over this role in 2003, the work has become more integrated, driven sales and won awards, resulting in eight EFFIE Awards for Kellogg's brands in the last three years, including three Golds. Most recently, Condon has overseen award-winning campaigns for Kellogg's Special K, Pop-Tarts, Raisin Bran Crunch, Apple Jacks and Cadillac's Under5 campaign that pioneered the use of short format, five-second commercials in the United States. Additionally, Condon leads Beck's and the Ad Council's AIDS awareness campaign on behalf of the United Nations.

"After an extensive search both internally and externally, John emerged as the best leader to take our creative department into the future. He understands the Leo Burnett brand," said Berman. "John has an amazing ability to nurture young talent in the agency and is a great role model for our growing group of under 30 creatives, who were recently ranked fifth in the world at the YoungGuns Awards."

"John is the kind of person that everybody trusts and respects, John is a true nurturer and protector of ideas. He's a person who can get the best work out of our talent and our clients. Key to his success will be his innate talent in collaborating with entities like Starcom and Arc to arrive at media-neutral ideas that win big in the marketplace. John is a next generation, new idea thinker, who I know will take us to new heights." said Stoddart.