M&C Saatchi has appointed Sveta Doucet – who will be joining its New York office – as Chief Strategy Officer. Doucet will officially start in November, and will report to NY CEO Jeff Brooks.
She joins Pierre Lipton, Chief Creative Officer, who started last month after working as Executive Creative Director of AKQA San Francisco.
Doucet is one of the industry’s foremost authorities on helping brands assert their leadership in both digital and traditional channels. She has had trusted partnership with multiple Fortune 500 companies across many categories, including consumer packaged goods, technology, financial services, travel and fashion.
Prior to her appointment at M&C Saatchi, Doucet was Head of Strategy at Profero, a leading independent global digital agency. She joined Profero in 2009 as one of its first U.S. employees and was responsible for helping to build the New York agency from the ground up. Under her leadership the New York office picked up assignments from clients including Smirnoff, Lufthansa, Johnson’s Baby, Western Union and TREsemme.
Prior to Profero, Doucet held senior planning positions at agencies including Taxi, Anomaly and Strawberry Frog, working on client accounts including Opel Vauxhall, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Apple. She began her career as a planner at Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners in New York, working on clients including Citibank, Mohegan Sun and Tab Energy.
Doucet, originally from India, was raised in 7 countries and eventually attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. In her spare time, she teaches at the Miami Ad School and is a member of Account Planners of New York and Planning for Good, a group created to solve strategic problems for non-profit organizations. She has also held posts at the New America Foundation, where she served as a public policy writer contributing to publications including Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and The New York Times.
“I’ve always admired the M&C Saatchi brand,” said Doucet. “It’s a formidable agency around the world with a clear sense of purpose and culture. Establishing New York as an important part of the network is a huge priority and an exciting opportunity.”
Jeff Brooks, M&C Saatchi NY CEO said of the appointment: “Sveta is the complete package. She’s fiercely intelligent, brand-centric, digitally savvy and highly entrepreneurial. We’re honored she’s chosen to join the family.” Brooks added: “It’s no accident that both Pierre (Lipton) and Sveta share a similar profile of traditional pedigrees plus significant time in senior digital roles. Too often clients feel they are making a compromise between brand and digital, which shouldn’t be the case in this day and age.”
The M&C Saatchi Group in New York, whose mantra is “Brutal Simplicity of Thought”, includes more than 50 people in Advertising, Public Relations, Sport & Entertainment, Mobile and Clear Brand Consulting divisions. Clients in New York include PepsiCo, Kellogg’s, Unilever, VF Corp., Rockport, Alvin Ailey, Pfizer, Etihad Airlines and FTI Consulting, among others. This past spring, Brooks, who formerly was CEO and Chief Digital Officer at Euro RSCG NY, was appointed to lead the integrated New York offering.