Jeff Benjamin appointed Chief Creative Officer and Mike Geiger appointed Chief Integration Officer of JWT North America.

Bob Jeffrey, Worldwide Chairman and CEO of JWT, today announced two significant hires for JWT North America.  Jeff Benjamin, formerly Partner and Chief Creative Officer at CP+B, has been named Chief Creative Officer, JWT North America. Mike Geiger, formerly Chief Digital Officer, associate partner at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, has been named to the newly created position of President, Chief Integration Officer, JWT North America.

Benjamin, 36, and Geiger, 44, will report to Jeffrey and partner with David Eastman, Chief Executive Officer, JWT North America and Worldwide Digital Director.

“Jeff Benjamin and Mike Geiger are game-changers and they embody the future of our industry,” stated Jeffrey. “With these appointments, JWT solidifies its position as the only agency that can deliver creativity and execution at the intersection of Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue and Hollywood. We know that clients need this unique expertise and we are excited to lead the way forward.”

“The soul of JWT has always been about defining brands through invention – and that is why this makes so much sense,” said Benjamin. “The opportunity to reinvent the agency by reigniting its soul and making work that matters to people and creates cultural momentum. These were all things I couldn’t resist – and things that can only happen with a talented team that trusts and believes in each other. That is exactly what has been assembled.”

“This is a really exciting challenge for me,” added Geiger. “The size and scale of the creative opportunity, as well as the transformation potential, was irresistible. I’ve known both David and Jeff for a while and the moment felt right.”

Benjamin will be charged with implementing a bold creative vision for the agency, as well as leading and inspiring JWT’s creativity in North America. By harnessing the power of the agency’s formidable network, he will ensure that JWT is in every way a creatively-driven organization.

Geiger will bring JWT’s creative vision to life. Known as a master architect with broad-based business leadership skills, he will be instrumental in ensuring the agency’s creative success. In doing so he will leverage JWT’s strong existing operations, while changing processes, adding capabilities and merging cultures to deliver cutting-edge technological innovation at scale.

“Inventing new ways for brands to surprise, delight and interact with people is becoming more critical than ever and requires a different kind of leadership team with the right blend of creative, strategic, technology, integration and executional skills,” said Eastman. “This is the team that we have put together. I am personally thrilled that Jeff and Mike are joining – we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

A creative revolutionary, Benjamin joined Crispin Porter + Bogusky at the end of 2003 as Interactive Creative Director and was most recently Chief Creative Officer and Partner. At CP+B, he worked on brands such as Burger King, Volkswagen, Kraft, Microsoft, Domino's Pizza, Coke Zero and Best Buy. Prior to CP+B, he worked at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on HP, Saturn and Goodyear. Benjamin has been recognized nationally and internationally by every major industry award show including the Grand Prix at Cannes, the Best of Show at the One Show and the Grand CLIO at the CLIO Awards.

Widely regarded as the preeminent digital integration leader of the marketing industry, Geiger joins JWT from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners where he held the role of Chief Digital Officer, Associate Partner. Geiger has spent the past 14 years leading multidisciplinary teams in strategy, branding, production and developing cutting-edge new media and advertising content for clients including HP, Adobe, Comcast, Sprint, Got Milk?, Gucci and Specialized Bikes. Geiger has produced work which has won numerous awards at the most prestigious award shows, including One Show Interactive, Cannes Lions, the CLIOs, the Art Directors Club and D&AD. During his tenure, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners won Digital Agency of the Year at the Cyber Lions in Cannes, Interactive Agency of the Year at the One Show and ranked #1 in the world in Interactive according to the Gunn Report.

Benjamin and Geiger will join JWT’s North American leadership team, which includes Eastman; Robin Bardolia, Chief Strategy Officer, JWT North America; and Beth Waxman-Arteta, who takes on an expanded role as Chief Marketing Officer, JWT North America. Bardolia and Waxman-Arteta will continue to report to Eastman.

Additionally, JWT announced that Peter Nicholson, Chief Creative Officer for JWT New York, has exited the company.

The agency will announce new creative leadership for JWT New York in the coming weeks.