He takes up the role at the beginning of next year, and replaces David Lubars, who held the title of president and chief creative officer until he quit to join BBDO Worldwide in New York.
Silburn told the New York Times he was "slightly kind of nervous" about the move. It will be the first time he has worked in the US.
He joined TBWA\London in 2001 after a long-running campaign by creative director Trevor Beattie to lure him to the agency. Before this, he was creative director of Leith London, a job he took up in 2000 after a six-month stint at Leo Burnett.
Between 1996 and 2000 he worked at Lowe Lintas and before this he was with Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow Johnson.
Silburn is hot property as a creative because of the string of award-winning campaigns on which he has worked, including John West Salmon, Stella Artois and Lynx. Among his awards are a Cannes Gold for the Scalextric "It's a boy thing" campaign.
More recently, he has worked on the much-loved John Smith's campaign starring Peter Kay and the Sony PlayStation account.
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