Schmetterer, aged 60, has been chief executive officer of Euro RSCG for seven years and last year he added the role of chief operating officer of Havas, parent company of Euro RSCG, to his duties.
The native New Yorker said he had been considering retirement for some time. "I discussed all of this with Alain [de Pouzilhac, chairman and CEO of Havas] over the past couple of months and after I made the final decision over the Christmas holidays, we both decided the best course for me and the company was to make the announcement and act on it immediately," he said.
His retirement comes as Euro RSCG completes a massive reorganisation and branding that has seen the names of partners dropped from the doors of various shops. Schmetterer will continue a strategic relationship with Heekin as a senior adviser to the company, Havas said.
Schmetterer began his advertising career in 1971 at the agency Scali McCabe Sloves, running accounts until he was named president of the New York office in 1980. In 1984 he became president and CEO of HCM Worldwide, a joint venture between Young & Rubicam and Eurocom.
Three years later he joined partners Tom Messner, Barry Vetere, Ron Berger and Wally Carey as president of an agency that became known as Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer. This agency is now part of the Euro RSCG network.
Heekin joined Euro RSCG in October last year as chief operating officer having been ousted from the position of chairman and CEO at McCann-Erickson, following an accounting scandal at the agency.
De Pouzilhac said of Heekin's appointment: "I have great confidence in Jim. I like the clarity of his vision, his will to win, his desire to develop our principal network and the fact that he is a man of action. I know that he will demonstrate the leadership that we are expecting."
Heekin spent 10 years at McCann-Erickson, including just over two in the top job and a stint as regional director of the EMEA region during which he was based in London. He began his career in advertising in 1975 in the research department of J Walter Thompson.
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