Jess Greenwood Joins R/GA as Director of Business Strategy

NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- R/GA, The Agency for the Digital Age®, is pleased to announce the arrival of Jess Greenwood, who joins the agency as director of business strategy. Greenwood will focus on several areas including client, business, and brand development. She will be based in New York and report to Barry Wacksman, EVP, chief growth officer, and William Charnock, chief strategy officer.

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Greenwood assumes a new hybrid role, working primarily to help the agency bring in new clients as well as to provide strategic planning for projects within the brand development offering.

"At R/GA we are constantly looking at ways to reinvent ourselves and bring about an effective disruption of the traditional way of doing things," said Wacksman. "Jess brings invaluable experience that will enable us to do just that in several key areas of our business. Her vast knowledge of creative trends and unique approach coupled with her passion for digital make her a tremendous addition to the R/GA family."

Greenwood comes to R/GA from Contagious, a leading global authority focusing on the intersection of marketing, technology, and consumer culture. After working on the 2004 launch of their award-winning magazine in London, Greenwood leveraged her strategic acumen and co-founded Insider, Contagious's independent consultancy division in 2009. Insider helps brands and agencies identify and integrate key insights and trends to strengthen their briefs and campaigns.

As director of Contagious Insider, Greenwood developed and managed long-term relationships with international clients including Kraft, Nike, Google, Levi's, Xbox, BBC Worldwide, and Louis Vuitton, delivering qualitative consumer research, market insight, and brand strategy to senior marketers. She also conceived for Contagious a unique methodology for the implementation of this insight, working in-house with advertisers to integrate an effective and contemporary approach to digitally, culturally driven marketing.

"I'm very excited to be joining the R/GA team and am looking forward to collaborating with the world-class planning, creative, and brand-development teams throughout the agency," said Greenwood. "I have always had the utmost respect for the way this extraordinary company evolves to keep pace with the digital landscape and am thrilled to be a part of the next evolution."

Greenwood is also a known thought leader, having spoken at the Cannes Lions festival, Microsoft's Imagine conference, PICNIC in Amsterdam, and Advertising Week in New York, in addition to having hosted the Ad:Tech conference in Tokyo in 2010. 

About R/GA
R/GA is a full-service agency that transforms the way people interact with brands. Founded in 1977, R/GA has been heavily awarded for its work in film, television, and digital advertising, including online and offline, across mobile, retail, social, technology, and creative. The agency has more than 1,000 employees globally, with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, and Singapore. R/GA is part of The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), one of the world's largest advertising and marketing services organizations. For more information on R/GA, please visit us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/rga) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/rga).

SOURCE R/GA