Rapp’s Chris Freeland has left his position as executive chair for the UK and APAC eight years after joining the agency as CEO.
Freeland started his agency career at Lida but stayed less than a year before joining TMW in 2001 as business director, when it was still an independent agency.
Over the following five years he moved up the ranks to client services director, and was managing director when Creston bought the business on 2006.
Freeland eventually became chief operating officer in 2012 and was promoted to joint CEO in 2014, working alongside Chris Pearce.
He joined Rapp in January 2016, effectively stepping into the role vacated by Marco Scognamiglio who had landed the top international job. He sat on the senior management team reporting to Sophie Daranyi, who was Rapp regional president at the time and eventually became Omnicom Commerce Group global CEO.
Following the merger with Proximity London in 2020, Freeland was handed the role of executive chair while Proximity CEO Gabrielle Ludzker became chief executive of Rapp. Ludzker will now take over Freeland’s UK duties.
According to a leaked email to staff, Freeland said “I need to be selfish”, although officially he said: “My ambition back in January 2016 was simple – to get Rapp to the top of its game and to receive industry recognition for our shared success. I also made myself a promise – that once we got to the number one spot, I would leave on a high.
His departure also coincides with Rapp global CEO Scognamiglio stepping down after 25 years with the agency.
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