Former OgilvyOne chairman and CEO Wendy Riches is leaving her post as Hasbro Inc.'s president of global DM and e-commerce to join New York advertising firm D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles.
Effective Nov. 8, Riches will become the New York firm's president--a newly created position--and join its board of directors. She'll oversee a global network of marketing communications companies, including Highway One, D'Arcy Directory Marketing and Clarion Marketing Communications in the United States and IMP in Europe.
The move, Riches told DIRECT, reflects D'Arcy's desire to "integrate direct marketing better with the brand advertising side and see what extra value can be brought by leveraging it across the network" of D'Arcy's advertising firms. The agency's traditional specialties have been sports sponsorships and packaged goods clients.
While Pawtucket, RI-based toy maker Hasbro has not named a successor to Riches, the company's vice president of global direct marketing Edward Kriete and director of Internet Carl Schwartz will both report directly to president and chief operations officer Herb Baum.
