Exclusive RGA’s Barry Wacksman, Saneel Radia, and Mike Rigby Start Their Own Venture

Three R/GA execs are leaving the IPG agency to start a new shop. Vice Chairman and Global Chief Strategy Officer Barry Wacksman, Global Chief Innovation Officer Saneel Radia and New York VP Executive Creative Director Mike Rigby are striking out on their own, writes Ad Age’s Lindsey Rittenhouse.

“People close to the matter say the startup has been negotiating with rival WPP Group to back the new shop. It could not be learned whether Wacksman and his group also pitched their new agency to IPG,” she reports.

It’s almost a tradition for a triptych of high-level agency folks to spin off on their own. One creative, one strategist and one account manager do an agency make. CCO Nils Leonard, CEO Lucy Jameson and MD Natalie Graeme left Grey London in 2016, eventually forming U.K. agency Uncommon. And Krystle Loyland, Seth Gaffney and Rob Baird left Mother to move to Austin and found Preacher.

R/GA itself has had some trouble finding its feet since CEO and founder Bob Greenberg stepped back in 2018.

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