The move comes as the agency announces a management rejig which sees the creation of the "office of the president".
The office of the president brings together a management triumvirate of: John Farrell, president and chief executive officer worldwide; Susan Gianinno, president and chief branding officer worldwide; and Lee Garfinkel, president and chief creative officer worldwide. Gianinno also retains her title of chairman.
Garfinkel was chairman and chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas & Partners and has spent more than 23 years working in advertising. During his career, he has been behind award-winning work for an array of blue-chip clients including Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Heineken, Pepsi, Sony Electronics and Citibank.
Farrell said, "This is unquestionably a new approach to managing D'Arcy. We've redefined our leadership structure not only to reflect our corporate commitment to deliver inspired strategic thinking, brilliant creativity and leadership expertise, but also to reflect Lee's unique background, which is an impressive combination of creative leadership and agency management."
Garfinkel's appointment is the latest in a series of strategic moves led by Farrell and Gianinno since they were appointed to their new roles in January.
In June, the company announced the appointment of Peter Angelos as executive creative director of North America. A month earlier, Gary Topolewski joined D'Arcy Detroit, home to the global Cadillac and US Pontiac businesses, as chief creative officer.
At the International Advertising Festival in Cannes last month, D'Arcy unveiled Creative Uprising, a 140-page magazine which explores the definition of creativity. The publication features 25 articles, including interviews with directors Joe Pytka and Prasoon Pandey, as well as design legend Massimo Vignelli.
Driven by transatlantic creative director Pasquale Barbella and Asia-Pacific creative director Jimmy Lam, D'Arcy instituted regional creative councils, the role of which is to set higher standards for the company's creative product and evaluate progress along the way.
Garfinkel began his ad career at Levine, Huntley, Schmidt & Beaver in 1978 as a junior copywriter. Over the next 11 years, he worked his way up to executive vice-president and executive creative director and authored some of that agency's most admired campaigns.
He joined BBDO in 1989 as executive vice-president and executive creative director. During his three years there, he created distinctive campaigns for several clients, notably Pepsi, including the well-known "shady acres," Cindy Crawford, and MC Hammer spots.
He joined Lowes in 1992 and has been credited with significantly raising the agency's creative profile with work on such brands as Mercedes-Benz, Diet Coke and Sprite.