• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 15, 2015

Deutsch, the Interpublic ad agency, has rejiggered its upper management ranks, the shop confirmed today.

Mike Sheldon, CEO of Deutsch LA, has been named CEO, Deutsch North America overseeing both the LA and NY offices. He will continue to report to Linda Sawyer, who had been the agency’s CEO and now becomes chairman, succeeding Donny Deutsch.  

At Deutsch LA, Kim Getty has been elevated to president. Getty had been COO at the LA office.

The agency also said that Winston Binch has been upped from chief digital officer of Deutsch LA to chief digital officer, Deutsch North America. He is credited with building a team of 190 LA-based digital specialists in four years, with digital now counting for 35% of LA’s revenue.

Also getting bumped up to a North American role is Pete Favat, formerly LA’s CCO, who now becomes CCO Deutsch NA. Ditto Jeff White, SVP, director of business development in Deutsch LA, who has been promoted to EVP, chief marketing officer, Deutsch NA. Under White’s guidance over the past year the agency has been awarded AOR assignments from Sprint, Pizza Hut, HTC, Nintendo, Vivint and George-Pacific, among others.

Val DiFebo will continue as CEO of Deutsch NY, a post she has held since 2009. DiFebo also holds the global role on Johnson & Johnson’s Acuvue business, leading all IPG partner agencies.

Commenting on the CEO change, Sawyer said: “Mike is the right person for the next chapter of Deutsch. In his 17 year run he has built strong client relationships, has an innate ability to attract top-tier talent and has built a world-class integrated agency. Under his leadership the LA office has grown from a handful of people to” a sizeable enterprise.

Donny Deutsch, who has been what the agency termed a “non-active chairman for the past several years,” becomes chairman Emeritus. The shop indicated that Deutsch would “formally end his relationship with the agency at the end of March 2015, as he continues his TV career."

Deutsch said of Sawyer that she "has been a formidable force at the agency for 25 years. And as CEO for the past nine years she has managed with an iron fist in a velvet glove, effortlessly guiding the agency’s growth and successes. I couldn’t be more proud and excited about the future of the agency that my Dad founded 45 years ago. This agency has been such a big part of my life and I’m thrilled to see it in the hands of these people who are so dear to me.”