McKinney Announces New Co-Chief Creative Officers

Integrated marketing agency McKinney has today announced a new creative leadership structure, hiring Omid Amidi and promoting Lyle Yetman to Co-CCO roles. Beginning today, Omid and Lyle will report directly to McKinney CEO Joe Maglio and will be charged with driving the creative vision for the growing agency with offices in Durham, NC; New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; and Dallas, TX.

Lyle is being promoted to Co-CCO from his role as McKinney executive creative director. Lyle joined McKinney in 2015 as a group creative director before being promoted to ECD in 2022. During his tenure at the agency Lyle has helped McKinney achieve tremendous growth, leading wins of marquee clients including Popeye’s and Little Caesars, both of which he led to the Super Bowl for the first time in 2024 and 2020, respectively. He has also made significant contributions to increasing McKinney's awards profile, helping to elevate the agency's creative reputation. He will remain based out of Durham.

Omid joins McKinney from creative agency FIG, where he has served as executive creative director since 2022. While at FIG, Omid helped to win new business with Viator and SKYY Vodka, while also leading work for clients Zillow and SeatGeek. Prior to FIG, Omid spent five years as a Creative Director at Johannes Leonardo where he helped win and lead accounts including Adidas Performance, Bleacher Report, EA’s Madden and GAP. Previously, as a creative at Pereira O’Dell, Omid led Coca-Cola’s largest initiative ever in Latin America. He will be based out of McKinney’s New York office.

Jonathan Cude, who led the agency to its most notable and award-winning work, has been with McKinney for over twenty years and served as chief creative officer for the past sixteen. He now passes the CCO baton to Lyle and Omid as he moves into a new role as creative chairman at the agency. This newly created role will allow him to support the new CCOs by deploying as needed across the agency’s client roster to bring additional senior-level creative expertise to their business. “It’s been my joy and privilege to serve as McKinney’s CCO,” Jonathan said. “Now it’s time for me to assist Lyle and Omid to continue the agency’s momentum and trajectory.”

“McKinney has experienced unprecedented growth over the past five years, and we’ve arrived at a pivotal moment in our history: we need to focus on growing into the agency we’ve become today and building the foundation for the agency we want to be tomorrow,” said Joe Maglio, CEO of McKinney. “Critical to that mission is identifying the creative leaders who will lead us into our next chapter. Under Jonathan’s creative leadership we reached new heights. And now, between Lyle, who joined McKinney just before its growth spurt and has been with us and our clients every step of this wild ride, and Omid, who brings world-class experience and a unique point of view from his time at cutting-edge creative shops, we’ve found a creative pairing that will push our work and our people to the next level.”

“This agency is a special place to work, and I’ve loved watching it grow into the national powerhouse it is today,” said Lyle. “We often talk about the Smarts and Hearts that make for such strong partnerships between ourselves and our clients, and I’m honoured by the opportunity to partner with Omid to lead the next creative chapter for this incredible group of people.”

“McKinney is an agency with momentum, ambition and vision,” said Omid. “From the way Joe leads with humanity and compassion to Lyle’s command of creative storytelling and business acumen, the people at McKinney are dream partners. I recognised early on in our conversations that McKinney is going big places, and I can’t wait to help lead them there.”

McKinney has kicked up significant momentum in recent months, being named to the 2024 Ad Age A-List and an Ad Age “Best Place to Work in 2024.” The agency’s growth record since CEO Joe Maglio took over in 2018 includes a record number of new client wins, the launch of a Health and Wellness practice in 2022, the acquisition of influencer marketing agency August United in 2023 and the subsequent opening of the agency’s fifth office location in Phoenix, AZ.