Dick de Lange Appointed Chief Strategy Officer Y&R NY

WPP’s Y&R has named Dick de Lange Chief Strategy Officer, Y&R New York, the agency confirmed Thursday. The appointment is effective immediately.

Reporting to Y&R New York President Jim Radosevic and Global Chief Strategy Officer Sandy Thompson, de Lange oversees strategy across the agency’s client roster, which includes Dell, Land Rover, Xerox, Campbell Soup Company, Pfizer, Hillshire Brands, and Conrad and Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts.

Previously, this role was handled by Hope Cowan, who served as Chief Strategy Officer, North America, and who recently left Y&R to pursue other interests. New York was a major part of Cowan’s remit and with her departure a decision was made not to fill the NA CSO role. Instead, de Lange was hired to lead strategy for the flagship office while the other offices will run their strategy practices separately.

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De Lange joins the agency from Interpublic’s R/GA, where he served as Group Strategy Lead on Samsung, and helped shaped strategy for Converse, Hunter Douglas, Unilever and Nike Digital Sport and Commerce.  

“Dick is an inspirational, collaborative leader with a genuine curiosity and passion for uncovering new truths about brands and people,” said Radosevic. “He is a classically trained brand planner with the speed and agility to work on integrated and digital accounts. His holistic world view will be a great asset to our global clients, too.” 

De Lange’s career to has spanned three continents and a variety of brands, including General Mills, Cadbury, McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Lexus, State Farm, Sony, MillerCoors and Dell. He has served in strategic leadership roles at Y&R sibling agency JWT in New York, Omnicom’s DDB and Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi in the United States, Australia and the Netherlands.

“I am a big believer in a right brain/left brain approach that combines rigor with imagination,” said de Lange. “And Y&R’s proprietary strategic tools …will enable me to take this approach to the next level.”

No word yet on a replacement for de Lange at R/GA.

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