Huge Names Chidi Achara New Chief Product Officer
CEO Lisa De Bonis Announces Strategic Executive Changes; In Addition to Achara, Matt Weiss Named Chief Brand Officer
New York, NY, Feb. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huge, the design and innovation company under Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), today announced a set of executive hires and appointments to further accelerate the company’s growth. In her first major action as CEO, Lisa De Bonis revealed that Chidi Achara will join Huge as Chief Product Officer, and Matt Weiss will be appointed Chief Brand Officer.
“Building a well-rounded, connected leadership team with diverse experience is a personal goal of mine in 2024,” said De Bonis, CEO of Huge. “With Chidi and Matt on our team, I believe we can now accelerate delivering unique and innovative solutions for our clients.”
Chidi Achara: Scaling products and experiences to increase impact
Achara brings a depth of product experience to Huge. Most recently, he was President of Brain.ai, an AI and interface company whose mission is to democratize the AI economy and empower anyone to build AI applications. In that role, he oversaw marketing, product, design, user experience, and engineering for the launch of Imagica AI — a no-code AI app builder that enables users to create their own AIs using simple, plain language prompts.
“Chidi has a proven track record of innovation and excellence that spans technology, culture, branding and design experience,” said De Bonis. “He’s a natural connector. He brings the dynamic skillset and creative thinking we value at Huge, and shares our belief in the undeniable power of data and technology to inspire breakthrough product experiences.”
Recognized by Black Enterprise and Ebony Magazine as one of the country's most influential Black business leaders, Achara has also served in several senior brand and creative roles, including: Chief Brand Officer at fintech Stash, Chief Creative Officer at Simon Property Group, Vice President of Creative Services at Nike, and Executive Creative Director at BBH USA. He also sits on the board of the nonprofit, Charity: Water.
As Chief Product Officer, Achara’s mission is to scale collaboration across product innovation, design and engineering, and integrate AI technologies to accelerate growth for clients. Achara joins on the heels of the roll-out of Culture Decoder, a tool to help brands understand the cultural trends most important to their customers, and Creative Capital Index, which empowers businesses to optimize their organizational creativity — both of which are driven by the company’s proprietary AI-powered Living Intelligence Value Engine (LIVE).
“Huge has built a business that’s proven to be as innovative as it is durable in an ever-changing market,” said Achara. “I’m excited to work alongside Lisa, our teams and clients to create and scale products and experiences that drive growth for the world’s most ambitious brands.”
Matt Weiss: Supercharging our brand and strengthening client connections
In addition to Achara’s hire, Huge announced that Matt Weiss, formerly Global President, will step into a new role as Chief Brand Officer, where he will be responsible for championing the voice of Huge's brand within and outside of the organization in service of growth.
“The Huge brand is one of our most valuable assets,” said De Bonis. “Everyone who knows Matt, knows he bleeds magenta and when this is coupled with his love for our talent and deep understanding of our client’s needs, it results in great work and happy clients. He’s always done this, I’ve just made it official.”
Weiss previously led Huge’s team of client partners and program delivery experts dedicated to strengthening client relationships and outcomes through creative, data-driven solutions. Over his six-year tenure at Huge, Weiss has cultivated some of the company’s most dynamic clients including Planet Fitness, Virgin Voyages and Darling Ingredients.
Prior to Huge, Weiss held executive roles at Havas and MDC Partners’ KBS. He also spent more than 15 years at McCann, compiling an impressive run of wins and awards.
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About Interpublic
Interpublic (NYSE: IPG) (www.interpublic.com) is a values-based, data-fueled, and creatively-driven provider of marketing solutions. Home to some of the world’s best-known and most innovative communications specialists, IPG global brands include Acxiom, Craft, FCB, FutureBrand, Golin, Huge, Initiative, IPG Health, IPG Mediabrands, Jack Morton, KINESSO, MAGNA, McCann, Mediahub, Momentum, MRM, MullenLowe Global, Octagon, R/GA, UM, Weber Shandwick and more. IPG is an S&P 500 company with total revenue of $10.89 billion in 2023.
About Huge
Huge is a design and innovation company. We create products and experiences that grow the world’s most ambitious brands. We do this by designing experiences for people, not users, and uncovering new sources of growth by leveraging our creative talent, our proprietary platform LIVE and unlocking the advantages brought to us by emerging technologies. We believe all experiences should be intelligent, shoppable and unique to every brand.
Part of the Interpublic Group of companies, Huge’s nearly 1,000 thinkers, tinkerers, makers and creators, have been problem-solving across North America, Europe, and Latin America for over 25 years. Interested? You’ll find more information at www.hugeinc.com.
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Contact Information
De'Andra Roberts
(Huge)
droberts@hugeinc.com
Tom Cunningham
(IPG)
(212) 704-1326
