John Owrid, the managing partner at Ogilvy & Mather, is leaving the
agency to join the Agency.com division i-traffic.
Owrid, who has worked for the Ogilvy Group for five years, is taking the
role of European president at i-traffic. His new job will include
developing a strategy for growing i-traffic's business across Europe and
defining ways of working more closely with other Omnicom companies.
I-traffic, whose clients include British Airways and Heineken, is a
specialist digital marketing agency. It is based in New York but has
European offices in London.
Owrid joined Ogilvy in 1996 as a managing partner at OgilvyOne and
focused on new-business development. He began his career at Leo Burnett
and has also worked at group level for BDDP and for the Lowe Group as
the European business director.
During his time at OgilvyOne, Owrid helped to launch its consultancy
division. Earlier this year he took a role at O&M where he ran the Argos
account and developed a brand consultancy.
Owrid said: "I-traffic is very democratic, very open. It has a freshness
that three- or four-year-old businesses tend to have. This is very
infectious when you've come from a big network."
Ron Kovas, the president of i-traffic, said: "I-traffic's customers
require European coverage. John's experience of leading consulting teams
working at a pan-European level is key to enabling i-traffic to extend
service capabilities in this market."
Owrid is expected to join i-traffic next month.
