• by Larissa Faw , October 23, 2014

Publicis Groupe customer engagement agency Rosetta continues to beef up its executive suite. The agency has named industry veteran Drew Kurth as Partner for its Consumer Products and Retail operations.

Rosetta's structure is organized by industry group and Kurth will manage teams of specialists across areas such as data science, technology, omni-channel strategy, analytics, commerce and digital, among others, for Rosetta Retail and Consumer Products clients.

The Consumer Products and Retail group is the largest within the agency, with clients that include VF Corp., owner of The North Face, Nautica, and Wrangler, and Luxottica, owner of Sunglass Hut.

“Drew is one of the industry’s leading consumer goods marketing experts and has a deep history of providing counsel to C-suite executives and delivering material business impact for clients,” said Eric Healy, Managing Partner, Rosetta. “His significant product development expertise, deep technical knowledge and offshore experience add important leadership strengths to our team.”

Kurth will provide leadership to existing clients as well as seek new business accounts. "Some of my first priorities will take a look at core clients to see what opportunities across Rosetta's Consumer Products and Retail group that may have gone unnoticed," says Kurth. "This team is so busy that they don't have time to step back. Thankfully, I may have enough leeway at first to do that to connect these dots."

Kurth joins Rosetta from its sister agency Razorfish, where he most recently served as CEO of Digital Marketing Platforms and Services. In this role, he was responsible for the launch of Fluent, the Groupe’s cloud-based software platform, which provides marketers with a single integrated application to target, distribute and manage digital campaigns and experiences.

Kurth is leaving Razorfish during a time of transition for the agency. Last month, Publicis announced the agency will morph into the new Razorfish Global network that is comprised of Razorfish, Rosetta, Nurun and Denuo shops. Rosetta's CEO Tom Adamski will helm the new network that will leverage the resources within each individual shop. Rosetta, for instance, will see its footprint expand from nine to 40 offices globally.

Although there are reports that Razorfish CEO Pete Stein plans to leave at the end of the year, sources say nothing has been decided about the agency's leadership structure to date, and that full plans will be revealed in the next two weeks.

Nonetheless, Kurth says he is well positioned to serve as an intermediary between Rosetta and Razorfish under this new arrangement. "I can help navigate this new collaboration since I know the structures of both groups," says Kurth.

Kurth will report to Healy and will be based at Rosetta’s Tribeca Office in New York City. This new role is part of Rosetta's three-year expansion plan.