PEOPLE & PRODUCT MANAGEMENT / LEADERSHIP PROFILE
Leo Burnett - Campaigns, UX & Emerging Technology
Strategy + Experience Design + Transformation
At Leo Burnett, iLeo, and Arc Worldwide, I helped lead digital transformation as the agencies brought together creative, technology, UX, rich media, CRM, content, analytics, and production into one operating model. My work connected campaign ideas, customer behavior, new platforms, and measurable results for major national brands. This was a key time for transformational leadership. A major challenge came when creative and technology teams at Arc Worldwide merged. The change brought uncertainty and resistance, with teams holding onto old ways and competing priorities slowing progress. To address this, I organized a cross-functional workshop to discuss concerns, clarify shared goals, and invite team leaders to help design new workflows. Rather than forcing alignment, I focused on transparency and building trust through open conversations. By listening and showing how each team’s skills fit into the bigger picture, I helped the group create a new delivery model with clearer roles and accountability. In the following months, team adoption improved, communication between groups increased, and project delivery sped up. As operational lead for digital creative at Arc Worldwide, I worked with the COO to bring agency capabilities together into a more unified digital delivery model. This work combined client-facing creative leadership with internal changes: aligning teams, improving delivery, clarifying ownership, and making digital central to agency operations.
Transformation evidence
Leadership evidence details
Leo Burnett and Arc went through a major shift in digital marketing. Clients wanted integrated digital experiences, so the agency moved from separate creative, direct, digital, rich media, technology, production, media, and analytics teams to a unified model. My role grew from leading creative and rich media to broader operations, helping teams work together, clarifying digital workflows, and making it easier to sell, build, launch, and measure ambitious projects.
I co-founded and co-led the Rich Media Group, and later became the operational lead for digital creative at Arc Worldwide, working with the COO to bring agency capabilities together. This transformation happened alongside major client projects. For Cadillac, I helped lead Cadillac.com, Cadillac Under 5, and the STS in-car DVD experience. At GoArmy, I led web production and rich-media content, supporting strategy, UX, content, and analytics for a high-stakes recruitment effort. For Daytime Dollars, Diageo, and Helio, I helped build engagement systems that linked behavior, data, personalization, mobile identity, CRM, and measurable participation.
The work also involved leading platform and vendor relationships. I negotiated Leo Burnett’s first global Adobe contract, giving the agency access to tools for a new era of digital creative work. Across all agency and client projects, the main focus was understanding the user, aligning stakeholders, organizing the operating model, protecting the user experience, and ensuring the work could be measured and improved.
Evidence
