Executive Creative Director Departs FCB Chicago

By Erik Oster 

Executive vice president/executive creative director Dan Fietsam has left his position with FCB Chicago. We have no word on the reasons for his departure or his future plans, but he is no longer with the IPG agency as of this week.

Fietsam was originally appointed to the role in July of 2014, working with such key clients as ABInBev, Boeing, Joe Boxer and Valspar. Before joining FCB, he served as chief creative officer with Energy BBDO for over five and a half years, a period during which he led creative on accounts including Anheuser-Busch, Wrigley, Bayer, SC Johnson, Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pearle Vision and King’s Hawaiian.

When Fietsam left Energy BBDO last year, president/CEO Tonise Paul credited him with taking that office from “a smaller agency…amidst one of most difficult macro economic downturns” to a more successful and widely recognized shop. He was succeeded in that role by CP+B veteran Mark Taylor, with Paul citing the latter CCO’s work on “Subservient Chicken” in announcing the hire. (Taylor stepped down from the position this July.)

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Fietsam will bring a very extensive agency history to his next position: he began his career as a junior copywriter at Ogilvy in 1988 and has held creative positions at nearly every major Chicago agency including Leo Burnett, Y&R and DDB. He also spent a year and a half as executive creative director with Publicis Seattle, helping to lead work on T-Mobile, Washington’s Lottery, RealNetworks and Coinstar.

Beyond those leadership roles, Fietsam has taught courses in creativity, branding and technology at The University of Chicago and Northwestern. He even made an appearance as a “stoic” judge on Celebrity Apprentice back in the halcyon days of 2010.

FCB declined to comment on Fietsam’s departure or its plans to appoint a successor.

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