McCann Worldgroup Romania promotes Ionela Buta and Catalin Dobre to Co-CEOs

McCann Worldgroup Romania announced today that Chief Operations Officer, Ionela Buta and Chief Creative Officer, Catalin Dobre, have been promoted to Co-CEOs. With their extensive experience and success within McCann Worldgroup Romania, this new partnership will see Creativity and Business collaborate to drive innovation for clients, capabilities and the organization.

Buta and Dobre both began their careers in McCann Worldgroup Romania, 10 and 20 years ago respectively, and between them have driven great success in both business and creative leadership.

Sagit Tzur Lahav will conclude her role as McCann Worldgroup Romania’sCEO after 13 years leading the Bucharest office, four as COO and nine as CEO.  

Under Sagit Tzur Lahav’s leadership, McCann Worldgroup Romania has amassed a record tally of local, regional and global awards, becoming the most awarded agency in Romania and Central Eastern Europe, winning 39 Cannes Lions in 10 consecutive years at the Cannes Festival of Creativity.

The agency has also been named Agency of the Year 5 times at the Golden Drum Festival and awarded Network of the Year at the same festival, for four years in a row.

The agency boasts an extensive portfolio with long term partnerships with brands including Vodafone, KFC, Dedeman, Kandia, and has served as a regional creative and business hub for clients such as Mastercard, Coca-Cola, Beko and Microsoft.

“We thank Sagit, for a decade-long collaboration! Beautiful changes and important moments in McCann history have taken place with Sagit as CEO.  Now we are elevating talent that has grown within McCann and contributed to strengthening the agency’s brand in the industry. Catalin and Ionela have grown and influenced McCann’s internal culture for many years, and I am a firm believer they will continue to do so,” said Bogdan Enoiu, General Manager.

“When I first joined the MRM agency, 10 years ago, my main goal was to build its reputation and grow the local digital business. Today, MRM is one of the largest and most important digital agencies in Romania, named Agency of the Year 5 times and enjoying significant growth. I am ready to continue Sagit’s legacy, while being super happy to work with two people I greatly admire: Catalin Dobre and Bogdan Enoiu, focusing on our mission to connect business with creativity and consolidate our position on the local market,” commented Ionela Buta.

“Creativity is not solely a product of the Creative Team in our agency. Creativity guides us all. From the way we define internal processes, to the way we adapt our creative product offerings, to the way we collaborate with our clients.  The co-CEO position that’s added today to my role as Chief Creative Officer, will help myself and Ionela evolve a culture that’s blending the business and creativity parts together in a unique way – challenging all the conventions we know about agencies,” said Catalin Dobre.  

“McCann Romania has become a powerhouse of great talent and a melting pot of creative excellence while keeping its entrepreneurial spirit, attending to our local long-term clients and growing our wings internationally. As we believe in growing from within, our new Co-CEOs, Catalin and Ionela, bring to life this ambition in the most outstanding way. I wish them good luck. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the family and for the privilege to nurture and enable all this passion and talent,” added outgoing CEO, Sagit Tzur Lahav.

ABOUT McCANN WORLDGROUP

McCann Worldgroup is the irrefutable leader in the business of creativity. With more than 15,000 employees, our core network includes a broad range of global practices, including McCann (advertising), MRM (science/technology/relationship marketing), CRAFT (production) and FutureBrand (consulting/design). Working together with rest of our network, which includes Momentum Worldwide (total brand experience), Weber Shandwick (public relations) and UM (media management), McCann Worldgroup is united behind our mission to help brands earn a meaningful role in people’s lives.