• by Larissa Faw , July 12, 2016

Gyro is naming Kimberly Bates as chief strategy and innovation officer of its New York office. This is technically a new position as the shop has never had a dual title of these roles in New York.

She has wide-ranging responsibilities. In addition to leading strategy in New York, she will help to execute the agency's innovation agenda globally, working alongside gyro New York managing director Wendy Lurrie and executive creative director Vito Zarrillo. She reports to Lurrie and gyro CEO/CCO Christoph Becker.

Bates has more than two decades of marketing experience. Most recently, she was executive planning director at mcgarreybowen and has held leadership roles at PHD Worldwide, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, Arnell Group and Nielsen. Bates has worked with brands including Pepsi, McDonald's, Google, Mercedes, Sony, Bank of America, Procter & Gamble, Revlon, Elizabeth Arden, Masterfoods, Unilever, Verizon, GSK, Pfizer, Chrysler, Lego, Old Navy and Footlocker.

Having run brand strategy at Time Warner Cable, Bates also offers the unique perspective of a client-side marketer, said the agency.

“Kimberly possesses a unique combination of energy, innovative thinking and experience in all aspects of strategy. She will amplify all of our efforts to create powerful, humanly relevant solutions for our clients,” stated Lurrie. “As business evolves and our clients' needs evolve with ever-increasing velocity, it is more important than ever that we continue to turbo charge our strategic capabilities throughout our offerings. Kimberly is central to that effort.”

Gyro employs more than 600 workers across 14 offices. Its roster of clients includes Aflac, Danone, eBay, Google, HP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Jabra, John Deere, Tate & Lyle, TD Ameritrade, Teva, USG and Vodafone.