Havas Chicago’s New CMO Lasted Less Than 2 Months

By Patrick Coffee 

Last December, Havas publicized its decision to hire Laura Terry as its new chief marketing officer in Chicago. Less than two months later, she’s gone.

In an interview with Lewis Lazare last week, CEO Paul Marobella—who has been running the Chicago operation for two years—said that Terry has returned to her home in Minneapolis after spending a few weeks in the role.

“It didn’t work out,” Marobella told Lazare, implying that “the reasons were mostly personal” without going into more detail. In the same piece, CCO and Instagram master Jason Peterson talked up the successes of The Annex, the millennial-focused unit first launched to serve the RJ Reynolds/Camel business more than two years ago. According to Peterson, Havas plans to open similar operations in “London and Paris and other markets where Havas has a presence.”

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According to one party who reached out to us, Terry’s very brief tenure ended because she did not sync with the culture established by Peterson and Marobella.

News of Terry’s move to Havas first broke last November, when former employer Martin Williams of Minneapolis announced the promotion of Lori Yeager to president and said it would not be seeking a new CMO. In a subsequent interview with Lazare, she said she would be “looking at the agency to make sure we have the right people and processes in place.”

Today, a Havas spokesperson stated that the agency wishes Terry the best and that its Chicago office has begun searching for a new chief marketer.

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