R/GA Promotes David Corns and Julie Andrews to New Leadership Roles

R/GA has announced that David Corns has been promoted to SVP, managing director, California and Julie Andrews has been elevated to VP, executive production director, California. Over the past three decades, California has grown as the global axis of technological innovation. In a move to unite Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, David will lead both R/GA San Francisco and Los Angeles, which will form R/GA California. Together, David and Julie will continue their mission of helping new economy companies create solutions for modern customers.

R/GA Los Angeles has a growing list of new economy clients, including Uber and Netflix. David and Julie will partner with a team of talented and accomplished strategic, creative and operational leaders. Los Angeles-based clients will gain David and Julie’s expertise and inherit a larger pool of talent to deliver work that better meets the needs of their audiences through refined digital marketing and CX offerings.

“We have an extremely talented group of people across California in both our San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. We are thrilled to unite the teams and super-charge our offering in this very special region where the future is imagined, designed, and built.” said David.

Julie added: “This move is an exciting next step in R/GA’s continued evolution. We look forward to seeing how this integration develops the next wave of creative output within the region, and can’t wait to be part of two dynamic teams.”

Under David’ leadership, R/GA San Francisco has seen significant growth by activating his strategy to be the Special Forces for the new economy, yielding business wins, including Airbnb, Slack, Reddit, Intuit PUBG, YouTube and to-be-announced highly coveted Silicon Valley startups. The office now also leads Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures and R/GA’s largest global client, Google, across the global network.

Julie joined R/GA San Francisco as executive production director to operationalise the office’s approach to working with new economy clients. She has created new models, structures and processes to successfully manage growth.

“David and Julie are a dexterous leadership team with smart, thoughtful points of view on how to best help their clients in a fast-changing market and how best to position R/GA in unique verticals. They have delivered great results. I’m looking forward to them having a larger foothold on the West Coast and in the direction of R/GA’s future,” said EVP managing director, US, Robin Forbes.

David joined R/GA San Francisco in December 2018 and set his new economy mission, re-working the way the office collaborates with innovative brands, earning the office a new business win rate of over 85% in his first year. The mission proved so successful that it was adopted globally by the R/GA network. David rebuilt the office’s executive leadership team and created one of the most desirable client rosters in the industry, with work spanning digital products, services, experiences and marketing communications.

Julie began her tenure at R/GA San Francisco in January 2020 to lead operations as well as oversee the production department. Prior to R/GA, Julie most recently led teams at In Wild Pursuit and VICE’s in-house agency, Virtue Worldwide. She brings a reputation of successfully constructing environments that foster collaboration among clients, creatives, and developers by combining the strengths of both production and account management.