Iris Worldwide appoints Ian Sohn as CEO of North America

Industry leader will be responsible for taking the global creative agency “to the next stage of growth in the region” 

New York (July 27, 2022)—Iris Worldwide, the creative innovation company, today announced the appointment of Ian Sohn as CEO of Iris North America. With more than 25 years’ experience as both a client and agency leader, Sohn will oversee all North American operations, responsible for the region's clients, revenue and growth.

Sohn joins Iris from Publicis Groupe’s CRM agency, Hawkeye, where he was President and Chief Client Officer for the last two years. His career spans leadership roles at prominent agencies, including as CEO of Wunderman Thompson Central, Managing Director of SapientRazorfish Chicago, Executive Vice President of Digital and Social at Ogilvy & Mather, and also client-side roles at Nokia and Sony Music.

“Hiring a new North America CEO has been the biggest appointment across our global agency for a very long time. Ian is widely regarded as an accomplished leader in the communication industry, having led teams at some of the most well-known advertising firms in the world,” said Steve Bell, Co-Founder and Global CEO, Iris.

“His incredibly strong data, digital, CRM and B2B experience from both his time client-side and his various agency roles mean he has the commercial, strategic, and operational skill needed to take us to the next stage of our growth across North America. His entrepreneurial mindset for growth combined with strong leadership credentials make him a great fit for Iris,” Bell said.

Reporting into Bell, Sohn will also become part of Iris’ Global Exec Board. He will oversee the continued delivery of world-class creative work for existing clients, which include Paypal, adidas and Samsung, as well as driving agency profile and prospecting in the region.

As part of the Cheil Worldwide network of 53 offices and 6500 experts, he will also leverage iris’ network partnerships and shared operating systems via Cheil Connec+, which allows clients to build bespoke cross-discipline teams from across Cheil’s global collective of agencies – including Barbarian, Cheil and McKinney.

“I’m energized about joining Iris due to the combination of top talent, excellence within specialisms and the strong client relationships,” said Sohn. “With these solid foundations, there is huge potential for the region and I’m looking forward to helping our offices become even more collaborative and connected, both with each other and our wider network via Cheil Connec+.”

Sohn will be based out of Chicago, with oversight over Iris’ other regional offices in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta and Toronto.

A vocal supporter of work-life balance and employee satisfaction, Sohn’s 2019 LinkedIn post urging both employees and managers to stop apologizing for having lives outside of work went viral across the globe—in a pre-COVID-19 era. It generated more than 54,000 likes, 2,000 comments, and was shared by more than 9,000 people resulting in appearances on TV and coverage in print, online and podcasts all around the world.