Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, Bacardi Rum's global communications director, was confirmed as the new chief strategy officer at FCB Garfinkel in a statement released yesterday. Amoo-Gottfried will be working closely with the agency's CEO and namesake Lee Garfinkel to expand the New York-based agency's offerings, succeeding Sara Bamber, who held the role for three years before departing the agency last week. Before his stint at Bacardi, Amoo-Gottfried worked at Leo Burnett Chicago with FCB global CEO Carter Murray, before moving onto Publicis.
Amoo-Gottfried will be working closely with the agency's CEO and namesake Lee Garfinkel to expand the New York-based agency's offerings
At only 34-years old, Ghana native Amoo-Gottfried has had something of a fast-track career, already having worked with established brands such as Western Union, Kellogg's, Nike, Nestle and Procter & Gamble. The nephew of former U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan, instead of following his uncle into politics, Amoo-Gottfried instead chose to make his mark on the world of advertising. This is a mark he most certainly made as former managing director at Publicis West Africa, the first majority-owned network agency in Africa, and an agency he launched himself.
Kofi Amoo-Gottfried
Other successes for Amoo-Gottfried include a stint as a senior strategy planner at Wieden + Kennedy, where he created the global strategy for Nike's Beijing Olympics campaign and also helped to reposition the sport's giants running shoes to help bring runners (professional and hobbyist alike) back to the brand. He also saw success during his time at Bacardi as chief architect of the “Untameable Since 1862” campaign, which was aired around the world, and was named as one of Ad Age's “40 Under 40” in January this year.
Amoo-Gottfried has said one of the primary factors that drew him to his new agency was the presence of Murray, who he has worked with previously at Publicis as well as Leo Burnett
FCB Garfinkel was previously known as the New York branch of Draftfcb, but was renamed when Draftfcb dropped the 'Draft' in it's global rebranding, and creative veteran Lee Garfinkel joined the agency. Garfinkel himself is very pleased indeed to have Amoo-Gottfried, calling his new colleague a “Collaborative strategist who doesn't know where planning ends and creative begins.” Amoo-Gottfried has said one of the primary factors that drew him to his new agency was the presence of Murray, who he has worked with previously at Publicis as well as Leo Burnett. Amoo-Gottfried says of Murray that he has “A lot of faith in his ability to turn places around, to inspire and motivate,” and believes they are “Very similar,” in so much as they are both about “Creating a culture that brings people together to focus on creating incredible work, and having fun doing it.”
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from the UK who believes that in a perfect world; Lee Garfinkel would find himself a troubadour with the surname Simone and start a Simon and Garfunkel tribute act named 'Simone and Garfinkel'.
