Mother appoints first global leadership team

Mother has appointed a global management team to oversee its global strategy and operations for the first time.

The new team comprises London chief creative officer Felix Richter as global chief creative officer; Teri Miller, president and partner, USA, as global chief client officer and US chief executive; Katie Mackay, partner, as global chief brand officer; and Chris Gallery, partner, as global chief strategy officer. 

The quartet will report to the Mother founder Robert Saville and the global chief executive of Mother Michael Wall, who was the agency's first global CEO when he joined in 2015.

Saville, who founded Mother in late 1996, said: “We have spent the last two years planning the next chapter in our Mother story. And like all our decisions, it comes down to people. People who believe in the values and ambitions of Mother.

"Teri, Felix, Katie and Chris. Wonderful, talented and principled leaders who will help our brilliant people build on their incredible momentum and push Mother to new levels all around the world. Because, let’s face it, our industry needs a strong Mother now more than ever.” 

Mother said the next generation leadership team is designed to strengthen collaboration across its offices and agencies, as the company approaches 30 years of operation. Each of the four roles is new to the business.

Richter will be the first global chief creative officer at Mother. He will oversee creative operations across the agency’s offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Shanghai, while maintaining his responsibilities in London.

Richter joined Mother as London’s chief creative officer and global creative partner in 2022 after 11 years at Droga5 New York, including as chief creative officer and ECD.

He has overseen a creative renaissance at the shop, which works with clients including Uber and KFC. Campaign named Richter its Top creative in 2023 and 2024. The shop also won Big Awards Agency of the Year in 2024 and came first in Campaign's list of Top agencies in 2023 and 2024.

As chief brand officer, Mackay-Sinclair will lead the development of the Mother business and its brand globally, including Make Our Children Proud, its commitment to being a positive contributor to the world and society. The agency's marketing teams around the world will have dotted reporting lines to her for global initiatives, as well as continuing to report to their local management.

Mother has tasked Gallery with championing and leading Mother's strategy efforts across its network of agencies. Local strategy leaders will also have a dotted line to him in addition to reporting to the management teams where they are based.

Mackay-Sinclair and Gallery will also retain their existing responsibilities as partners of the London agency alongside their new global roles. 

Mackay-Sinclair has worked at Mother for 17 years, including as joint head of strategy and strategist. Mother promoted her as part of a quartet, alongside Gallery, as the next generation of leadership of its London agency in 2017. She was a strategic planner at Publicis prior to joining the indy shop.

Gallery has been at Mother for 15 years, and was senior planner at McCann Worldgroup (then McCann Erickson) for two years beforehand. He was head of strategy alongside Mackay-Sinclair from 2014, when they replaced Dylan Williams, and then partner from 2017.

In her new role, Miller's task will be to expand the agency’s client roster, to which Mother recently added BlackRock, Dow Jones, Electronic Arts, General Motors and General Mills.

She has worked at Mother since 2022, moving from 72andSunny, where she was president of the Los Angeles-based global marketing agency for three years.

Wall said: “This is a world-class team. And they are proven and high-quality practitioners for Mother. We believe that there has never been a better time to be a truly independent creative agency that is focused on its clients, genuinely cares for its people and can act with clarity, speed and at scale in today’s marketplace.”