De Kare-Silver had been the London managing director at Modem for two years, before its acquisition in the summer by the US-based Digitas. Two weeks after the merger of the two businesses was finalised, de Kare-Silver left the agency and was replaced by Norm Johnston, the former director of client services at Modem.
Reporting to the AKQA chief executive, Tom Bedecarre, who is based in San Francisco, the position of European managing director is a new one for AKQA, which holds a number of pan-European digital accounts.
One of de Kare-Silver's assignments will be to look at the viability of opening AKQA offices in other European markets.
AKQA is already in expansion mode, having opened a New York office in October and appointed Framfab's Lars Bastholm as the executive creative director to run that business.
"Michael brings unmatched sector expertise and broad management experience to the agency as we look to add further depth to our client relationships," Bedecarre said.
Before joining Modem in 2002, de Kare-Silver was the global head of e-business at PA Consulting.
He was a director on the board of Great Universal Stores and is the author of four management books.
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