FCB Names Vita Harris Global Chief Strategy Officer

FCB has elevated Vita Harris, previously chief strategy officer, to global chief strategy officer. The position was previously held by Nigel Jones, who after taking some personal leave, will become chairman of the network, working on special projects with FCB Worldwide CEO Carter Murray

In her new role, Harris' responsibilities will expand to include ​​FCB's strategic offering for clients "to lead greater alignment of FCB's deep strategic capabilities with its robust performance and data offerings" across all disciplines, the company said, as well as continuing to lead the agency's DE&I marketing efforts.

Harris, who has been with the agency for 25 years (beginning at Draft before it became part of FCB) first joined as senior VP, director of strategy and planning. Eventually rising the ranks, she operated as chief strategy officer since 2014. During that time Harris led strategies and campaigns for ​​for brands like American Express, Bank of America, Verizon and, most recently, Walmart.

Harris says she will be focused on making sure FCB's proprietary tool suite is "exceeding expectations" across the network, creating a stronger bond between strategic planning and data, and continuing to bring a DE&I influence to the agency's work.

"When I first started in this industry, I asked myself the question, 'What do I want to do while I'm here in this industry as a career?'" Harris said. "And the answer was I want to be in a role where I can influence the culture of where I'm working. It's been important to me, especially as someone who is a person of color. So I want to continue to really bring to fruition what I think agency and client are trying to do in terms of DE&I, but not as it relates to the workplace and the workforce, this is in the marketing."

In 2019, Harris helped develop FCB's proprietary process of identifying and labeling biases to prevent them from making their way into the work across strategy, planning, and creative, which has been deployed and embraced by a number of the agency's clients.