SS+K has appointed a leadership team to run the advertising agency’s day-to-day operations. Elisa Silva, Kevin Skobac and John Swartz have been promoted to managing directors, reporting to Rob Shepardson, co-founder of SS+K and co-chair of M&C Saatchi New York.
“Elisa, Kevin and John live, breathe and shape SS+K’s culture while bringing their expertise to bear on our business, client and strategic issues,” said Shepardson. “They know how best to marshal the agency's resources to get to the most effective solutions for our clients.”
SS+K’s team of MDs explores new, less traditional ways to build bespoke teams that are sometimes much leaner, include hybrid talent and or lean into strengths that may sit outside of job descriptions.
A recent success of this model is the agency’s Tourism Australia win. SS+K, M&C Saatchi New York’s flagship agency joined forces with creative boutique Technology, Humans And Taste (THAT) to win US business late last year.
As managing director, clients + culture at SS+K, agency veteran Elisa Silva oversees the agency’s brand roster and account management team. She also ensures SS+K remains an inclusive, collaborative, integrated space for talent to do their best work. Elisa joined SS+K as SVP, director of client services nearly three years ago from Barton F. Graf, where she was a group account director. She started her career in film and music video production and moved agency side to Wieden+Kennedy’s in-house experiment, WK12, where she spent several years before joining 72andSunny LA. Elisa also worked at J. Walter Thompson and Translation. Her brand experience includes Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Google, Nike, Laika Studios (Coraline), Levi's, The American Indian College Fund, Target, AB-InBev, Activision, Nestlé, and Snyder's-Lance.
Kevin Skobac, managing director, strategy group, joined SS+K in 2010 and held various roles in digital strategy at the agency (most recently SVP, director of digital strategy + innovation). Throughout his nine years at SS+K, he has worked on the critical youth marketing efforts for Obama 2012 and clients including HBO, Jet.com, Microsoft, Amazon, EveryTown, Samsung and Wells Fargo. He was named a rising star by Digiday in 2015. Prior to SS+K, Kevin was at DraftFCB handling digital media strategy, planning, and buying for the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s ‘Above the Influence’ campaign.
John Swartz, managing director, production + operations has spent over eight years at SS+K, most recently as SVP, director of production and innovation and responsible for delivering the wide variety of work required by the agency’s diverse client base, including Obama 2012,
HBO, Jet.com, JW Marriott, Samsung, Wells Fargo and others. Prior to SS+K, he was VP/head of integrated production at Saatchi & Saatchi, setting the standards for technical and creative development and leading productions for JCPenney, Miller High Life, Empire State Development Corp (I Love New York), Wendy’s and Ameriprise Financial. Prior to Saatchi, he worked on Motorola at Draftfcb. Before getting into agency life, John ran his own production studio, Brainpuppy.
Kevin and John are cofounders of the agency’s in-house incubator, SS+K Labs, which explores nascent mediums, platforms, and technologies. Projects have included Moving Through Glass, a Google Glass application which augments the lives of persons living with Parkinson’s disease.