CAA Brand Consulting Adds Four to Senior Leadership Team (EXCLUSIVE)
CAA Brand Consulting has added four senior marketing executives — Kevin Walker, Liane Morgese, Jared Shulman and Drew Mitchell — to the award-winning division, responsible for building culturally driven, strategic and innovative marketing solutions for brands across sports, entertainment and corporate social responsibility.
CAA Brand Consulting is led by marketing industry veterans Aubree Curtis, Jeff Eccleston, Liz Gray and Seth Jacobs, who were installed as global co-heads of CAA Brand Consulting’s team in March 2020. The division is made up of more than 250 employees working in the U.S., London, Munich and China.
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“We have been fortunate that our business has been on a growth trajectory this past year in spite of the pandemic,” Eccleston said in a statement announcing the new appointments. “We have not only been focused on the fundamentals of strong client service, but also on building and expanding areas of expertise that will help our clients stay resilient as the marketplace continues to shift.”
Walker, Morgese, Shulman and Mitchell are each joining the agency in a leadership capacity.
Walker has been named global head of cultural and consumer insights. In this role, he will focus on helping brands interpret macro-level cultural shifts and understand the attitudes, opinions and behaviors of consumers to develop strategic marketing solutions. He has more than two decades of experience working with brands like McDonald’s, AT&T, Coca-Cola Classic, Tyson Foods and Nokia and as the multicultural strategy director with Team DDB on the U.S. Army recruitment campaign. Walker also previously formed his own consultancy company called CultureLab, which brought awareness to the changing demographics among young consumers and the impact of digital media on them.
Morgese will serve as the new co-head of insights and analytics, working with fellow co-head Pat Randall to further the division’s measurement and analytics function across domestic and global clients. Morgese will also spearhead the continued design, implementation and management of sponsorship measurement initiatives. Prior to CAA, Morgese served as Octagon, Inc.’s group director of insights and strategy.
Mitchell joins as an executive in CAA Social Impact, which is led by CAA Social Impact Global Co-Head Judee Ann Williams and sits at the intersection of CAA’s Brand Consulting and Foundation groups. In the new role and using his background in brand purpose and nonprofit partnerships, Mitchell will help clients identify issues that are important to their brand and their consumers while developing new programs, commitments and pathways for doing good in society at large and in their local communities. Mitchell comes to CAA from Burson, Cohn & Wolfe, where he was the vice president of strategy, and he previously held positions at Oberland and Edelman.
Shulman rejoins CAA as an executive in the Brand Consulting division, where he will focus on client account business, new capabilities and business development. Shulman previously worked in CAA’s Entertainment Marketing Group before his most recent position as Chief Executive Officer of Brand New Story, a content advisory company he co-founded with Cinetic Media’s John Sloss and Rough House Pictures’ David Gordon Green.
“We are excited to welcome such strong and skilled colleagues in Kevin, Liane, Drew and Jared,” Gray added. “They, among the other new colleagues we have welcomed in the past year, add strength of experience and thought leadership to our team, and deepen our diversity of expertise to the rounded capabilities we offer our brand clients.”
In addition to the four senior-level appointments, Ian McWhirter and Christopher Wallace also join the CAA Brand Consulting team. Walker and Wallace will operate out of CAA’s Dallas office, while Shulman, Mitchell, Morgese and McWhirter will be based in New York.
CAA Brand Consulting’s client list includes JPMorgan Chase, Allianz, Bose, Constellation Brands, Mondelez, Wilson Sporting Goods, Aflac, KPMG, Tissot and Volvo, among others. Within the last year, the division has signed new clients, including Black Archives, Coinbase, Eastside Golf, loanDepot, Noom, Porsche AG, Sidney Industries and Sokin.
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