James Murphy, David Golding and Ian Heartfield have poached Rob Curran, chief experience officer at Wunderman Thompson, to join their upcoming start-up.
Curran will lead the customer experience practice at the new venture, which is set to launch later this year.
In December 2018, Murphy and Golding, co-founders of Adam & Eve/DDB, announced that they were planning to launch a communications agency. Heartfield left his role as chief creative officer at Bartle Bogle Hegarty London at the start of 2020 to join them as creative partner and will take an equal equity stake in the business alongside Murphy and Golding.
Murphy said: "The best clients are putting brand and customer creativity together, and some big agencies are slowly trying to merge those talents. But we have the opportunity to build an agency with this strength at its core and Rob is by some margin the best CX practitioner in the industry. He’s a game changer."
Curran joined Wunderman in 2016 as head of customer experience, before being promoted to chief experience officer in 2018. He kept the same role when the agency merged with J Walter Thompson to form Wunderman Thompson.
Over the past four years, Curran has handled brands including Adidas, Dyson, Marks & Spencer, Mazda, Selfridges, Shell, Unilever, Volkswagen and Walmart. Before Wunderman, he worked at Rapp.
Curran said: "I've loved every minute of the last four years at Wunderman. It's a formidable agency with amazing talent. But there's something entirely new, exciting and special to be built. And I can't wait to do that with this incredible team."
Pip Hulbert, UK chief executive of Wunderman Thompson, added: "We’re thrilled for Rob and wish him all the best in his next venture."
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