Tor Myhren will become VP of marketing communications at Apple early next year, overseeing its advertisements, websites and product packaging. He is stepping down from Grey at the end of the month, ending a successful eight-year tenure, first as chief creative officer and later president of Grey New York, and for the past two years as worldwide chief creative officer.
In a memo to agency staffers, Jim Heekin, chairman and CEO of Grey Group, wrote, “Tor will be joining Apple Inc. and moving to California with his growing family, a lifestyle change they have been contemplating for some time. After a spectacular run at Grey, Tor wants to try his hand on the client side for this iconic tech company that has changed our culture and how we communicate.
“As the head of the Grey Global Creative Council, Tor has made a monumental contribution to our success, enhancing our creative product, talent and profile around the world. Today, we have a deep bench of accomplished creative leaders in place across the world to fuel our continued momentum.
“Tor takes with him our gratitude and warmest wishes for continued success as he opens this new chapter in his career.”
Myhren shared, “My eight years at Grey aren’t just the best years of my career, they’ve been the best years of my life. I have treasured every single minute of working side by side with my mentor and friend Jim Heekin. There are no words to express how proud I am of what we built together.”
A Grey spokesperson noted that the agency has no immediate plans to name a new worldwide CCO, that the agency maintains a strong Global Creative Council and that the accomplished Andreas Dahlqvist starts his second year as Grey NY CCO.
Of his new roost, Myhren related, “Apple has had such a positive influence on my life, and has helped shape and inspire my creativity more than any other product on the planet. I am humbled to be joining Tim [Cook, Apple CEO] and the team.”
The announcement of Myhren’s hiring was made along with the news that Apple has named Jeff Williams as its new chief operating officer, a job left vacant since Cook moved up to CEO more than four years ago. Williams has worked at Apple for about 17 years and supervised the launch of the Apple Watch, which went on sale earlier this year. The company said Williams also played a “key role” in the launch of the iPhone.
Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. also expanded the roles two other executives. It promoted Johny Srouji from VP to senior vice president of hardware technologies and said that sr. VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller would now add the App store to his responsibilities.
