In Steve Williams’ first hire since joining Maxus as North American CEO in June, he has named Jonathan Adams as chief digital officer for the region.
Adams joins the GroupM agency from iCrossing, where he was svp and head of North American media. Adams’ appointment follows Maxus’ win of NBCUniversal’s digital business in July, an account that spent more than $92 million in digital media last year, according to Kantar Media.
The last top digital executive at Maxus was Brian Leder, who was a senior partner, digital director for North America and left in January.
Williams, who previously worked as New York president at Omnicom Group's PHD, has spent the last few months getting the lay of the land at Maxus. The media agency, which was created in 2008, has grown quickly after winning a share of NBCUniversal’s U.S. business, global S.C. Johnson work and Barclays Bank while expanding its relationship with Bausch + Lomb.
“I have this passion for ideas and creativity and how they lead to team formation. Very big and mature media markets like the U.S. tend to be siloed,” Williams said, noting that the young agency was created differently in the digital age. “Maxus is at a scale that now allows us to play differently because we think ideas go horizontally, even diagonally, as opposed to vertically. We have a really interesting client mix and a great depth of talent here.”
At iCrossing, Adams oversaw the company’s media and analytics practices and led teams that worked on accounts like DirecTV, Williams Sonoma, PNC Bank, Lego, Kellogg’s, Belk and Coca-Cola. He previously worked at Digitas as svp, global media for nearly nine years. Prior to that role, he held posts at OgilvyOne, Lowe and The Media Edge, now known as MEC.
