AKQA North America CEO Tesa Aragones and chief marketing and growth officer for the Americas Jabari Hearn are leaving the agency.
The news broke industry-wide earlier today—employees were notified via an internal memo from global CEO Baiju Shah on Tuesday. The leadership exits follow a string of departures following AKQA founder Ajaz Ahmed’s exit in October 2024 after 30 years at the helm. Ahmed went on to establish another agency, Studio.One, and was later joined by former AKQA execs Susannah Fogarty, Thad Goad and Sebastian Gunnewig.
Since Ahmed’s resignation, nearly a dozen execs have left the WPP-owned agency.
A spokesperson for AKQA released the agency’s statement: “Tesa Aragones will be stepping away from her role as Regional CEO. We appreciate her leadership and the positive contributions she has made to our teams and clients. Jonathan Bolden, chief transformation officer, will provide leadership and oversight for the Americas in an interim capacity. This change supports our continued focus on collaboration and excellence across the region.”
In January 2025, Campaign exclusively announced the new AKQA Americas leadership team, with Aragones at the helm as CEO. The restructure was the result of the aforementioned agency exodus. The leadership announced at the beginning of this year consisted of Aragones, Hearn, Giles McCormack as chief client officer, Andrew Missingham as chief data insights officer, Katje Chiller as chief people officer, CFO Jon Eggar and Haley Hammerling (global head, communication).
Hearn served as AKQA’s managing partner, Los Angeles before being promoted to chief marketing and growth officer at the beginning of this year. Under his supervision, the agency’s LA studio was built, becoming one of the fastest-scaling offices in the network with $7 million in revenue in two years.
Hearn’s role will not be filled at this time. Aragones remains with the agency, though a final departure date has not been set.
