• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 5, 2010

Following a seven-year hiatus, R/GA on Wednesday said Pat Stern has rejoined the agency as executive creative director on the Walmart account. Stern comes back to the RG/A fold from 10x, a Web site-development company for startups, which he created in partnership with Eric Liftin, architect and founder of MESH Architectures.

Stern was a creative director for R/GA from 2002 to 2003, and co-managed a team of designers, writers, technologists, and producers on all digital marketing efforts for the agency's Nike account, including Nikelab.com, which blended artists' creative renderings with Nike products, and the Sole System -- an "interactive journey" through 30 years of Nike basketball shoes.

"When he was here last, we collaborated on the newly won Nike account, and I have great memories of his intelligence and creativity," said Nick Law, R/GA's chief creative officer for North America. "His understanding of R/GA's culture ... and his experience working on some of the world's biggest brands puts him in a great position to lead the creative for one of our most valued clients."

Stern also recently founded WORKSHOP, a small full-service agency with Arthur Bijur, co-founder and long-time partner of Cliff Freeman & Partners, along with David McNamara, principal of Collective.

Previously, Stern served as an executive creative director at Euro RSCG Worldwide, where he worked on the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man" campaign, and was responsible for driving digital marketing efforts for clients, including Charles Schwab, Kraft, Jaguar, and Volvo.

Prior that that, he was digital creative director for the Apple account at the Media Arts Lab, a creative shop from TBWA/Chiat/Day. There, he worked on the "Get a Mac" campaign, as well as several other iPod and iTunes campaigns. Stern also worked as a group creative director for Organic, where he headed up the New York office creative group.

Continuing to refresh its talent pool, R/GA earlier this year named William Charnock as chief strategy officer. In that newly created position, Charnock is responsible for overseeing the agency's global strategy, as well as managing the planning and research teams (and international development) of R/GA's strategic services group.

Previously, Charnock was at JWT New York as director of strategic innovation and co-head of strategic planning.