• by Larissa Faw , August 24, 2018

Marketing tech shop Transiris is appointing agency veteran Ted Kohnen president of its newly formed ad agency, Retina. 

This spin-off is designed to signal to the market that there’s a new definition of what it means to be a “full service” agency, says Kohnen. "It now means an agency that offers deep technical expertise in business intelligence, AI, marketing automation, etc. combined with the strategy, positioning, creative and go-to-market approaches today’s marketers require," he says. 

Kohnen will work alongside Transiris parent company CEO Silvian Centiu to build this new firm with 75 staffers. The San Francisco-based agency's roster of clients includes Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cisco, HPE, BMO, Kohl’s, IBM, Vodafone, and Cora. 

For the past 11 years Kohnen was at global B2B agency, Stein IAS, where he was CMO and then managing director, overseeing offices in the US and China. He launched the agency’s San Francisco office in 2015. 

Over his career, he has led account wins and assignments with ADP, Boeing, Centurylink, LG, NCR, Oracle, Tata Consultancy Services, Weight Watchers and Western Union.

This new role was an unexpected development, he says. "I was introduced to the Transiris CEO by a fellow board member from the ANA Business Marketing NorCal chapter. We first met to discuss how Transiris could get involved as a partner of the ANA. I wasn’t looking to leave my agency [Stein IAS] at the time."