Zaid Al-Zaidy Named CEO of McCann London

McCann London announces today that Chief Strategy Officer, Zaid Al-Zaidy, has been promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer. In this role, Al-Zaidy will assume responsibility for the business as well as continue his leadership of the overall strategic direction of the agency. Al-Zaidy will work in close partnership with Presidents and Co-Chief Creative Officers, Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson, who will continue to drive the new creative vision for the agency. Al-Zaidy, Doubal and Thomson formed their relationship early on in their careers while working together at Mother London.

Gustavo Martinez, President, McCann Worldgroup Europe, Asia & Pacific said, “Zaid’s experience leading global brands both agency and client side coupled with his passion for the work will drive real growth for our clients’ brands. This appointment brings even more momentum to Rob and Lol’s creative leadership and I look forward to seeing more continued success for McCann London with Zaid at the helm.”

Commenting on the announcement, Laurence Thomson, Co-President and Co-Chief Creative Officer of McCann London said, “What we like about Zaid is that he's worked both agency and client side, so he offers perspective and insight, and he's driven by the desire to make amazing creative work. It's a pretty powerful combination of strategic expertise and passion for ideas that really cuts through. He manages to do all this while being a jolly nice chap. Zaid shares our ambition for McCann and we are massively excited to have him alongside us. Boom.“

Al-Zaidy joins McCann London from TBWA\London where he was the Chief Strategy Officer since 2010, working on global and local accounts including Adidas, Nissan GSK, and Four Seasons. Prior to TBWA\London, Al-Zaidy was Head of International Planning at RKCR/Y&R and Managing Partner of Saint (in-house digital agency) working on Land Rover and Bacardi, and also Strategy Director at Mother, working on Coca-Cola, Boots, Diageo, and Eurostar. Al-Zaidy started his career at Unilever, spending 8 years working in the marketing team, working his way up to Senior Global Innovation Manager on the Lynx/Axe brand.