DeFlorio joins Andrew Deitchman, formerly director of business development at Red Cell, and the Swedish creative team Linus Karlsson and Paul Malmstrom, who arrived from Fallon last month.
According to reports, DeFlorio will join to help build the New York office of Mother and prepare for its opening. He ran Nike's advertising from 1999 to 2002, during which time the company's "tag" ad, created by Wieden & Kennedy New York, won the coveted Grand Prix at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Since leaving Nike, he has been taking time out to travel.
He is a well-respected figure in the US industry, with a background on the agency side, having worked for Lowe & Partners and TBWA\Chiat\Day New York.
Mother has yet to announce which UK partners will be crossing the Atlantic to work in New York, or a firm opening date for what will be its second office.
The agency, founded six years ago, is run in London by four partners: Stef Calcraft, Andrew Medd, Mark Waites and Robert Saville. It has 70 staff and billings of 拢90m, and a reputation for doing things differently -- running without account handlers and refusing buyout offers from the large ad groups.
Mother is following in the footsteps of an earlier generation of independent creative agencies such as Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which also has expanded to New York.
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