Chaka Sobhani will join DDB Worldwide as president, chief creative officer international. Sobhani is leaving Leo Burnett UK where she’s served as CCO.
Sobhani will report to DDB Worldwide’s global CEO Alex Lubar.
During Sobhani’s tenure at Burnett, the agency and overall network received assorted accolades. Burnett, for example, was named Network of the Year at Clios, ADC, Dubai Lynx and Spikes. Multiple award winning campaigns include “Raise your Arches” and “Lights On” for McDonald’s, “The Missing Chapter” for P&G, and “One House” for Suncorp.
Highly awarded in all the major award shows, Sobhani has also served as jury member and president numerous times at the world’s greatest awards shows including Cannes, D&AD, One Show, the Andy’s, Art Directors Club, Eurobest, Clios, LIAs, the IPA, the Creative Circle and the British Arrows.
Lubar said, “Chaka is a true leader. She leads by doing, inspiring and deeply understanding the people around her and the clients she works with. Her energy is infectious, her drive is relentless, and her dedication to delivering outstanding creative product for her clients is unquestionable. She is the type of leader that makes you want to be, make, and do everything better. We have an outstanding creative community at DDB, and the addition of Chaka will continue to raise the bar on our world-class creative product for clients. In short, today is a very good day for DDB Worldwide.”
Sobhani sits on the External Affairs Committee for the Design Museum, as well as on the board of D&AD, The One Show, the British Arrows, Creative Circle and Facebook EMEA Creative Council, Snapchat Global Creative Council and WARC Advisory Board.
Before joining Leo Burnett, Sobhani spent a number of years at independent agency Mother, running key accounts and building its content capability. She has worked on an array of large global brands including McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Google, Kellogg’s, Samsung, Boots, Skoda, Disney, AXA, Morrisons, Tui, Premier Inn, Sky, P&G, General Motors, Stella Artois, National Lottery, Agent Provocateur and Adidas.
Sobhani also spent over a decade as an award winning filmmaker and television creative executive. She set up ITV’s first in-house creative agency, during which time the network regained the #1 position in the U.K., created its most successful global formats and content in shows like the X Factor and Downton Abbey, and won the prestigious Channel of the Year for the first time as well as numerous BAFTAs, Golden Globes and the prestigious Rose D’Or.
Sobhani will be based out of DDB’s European headquarters in London and will partner closely with Rick Brim, global CCO of adam&eve DDB.
She is being succeeded at Leo Burnett UK by Mark Elwood who’s been promoted to CCO.
