Just weeks after DDB named a new CEO for its Chicago office, the office's creative chief has decided to leave.
Ewan Paterson, who has been chief creative officer for Chicago since 2010, plans to return to the U.K. market from which he hailed. Before DDB, Patterson was executive creative director and a managing partner at CHI & Partners in London.
In a statement, Paterson said that he'd "miss the people who make up DDB Chicago hugely, but the stars have aligned for me and the my family to go home to London. I intend to spend three to four months being a 'dad' for the first time-ever and then working on setting up my own agency."
Executive cds who worked under Paterson will absorb his leadership responsibilities while DDB searches for a new CCO.
Chicago's new CEO, Paul Gunning, is the third office chief since Paterson joined DDB three years ago. Gunning succeeded Peter McGuinness, who left last month to become chief marketing and brand officer at Chobani in New York. McGuinness had run the Chicago operation since 2011.
The office's top accounts include McDonald's, State Farm, Mars and Safeway. About 375 staffers work there, including 90 in the creative department.