Wieden+Kennedy Appoints John Rowe as Managing Director of the Tokyo Office

Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo is pleased to announce the appointment of John Rowe (pictured) as the agency’s new managing director. Rowe will join executive creative directors Tota Hasegawa and Mike Farr to complete the management team for W+K Tokyo, and replaces Blake Harrop who moved on to join W+K Amsterdam as the new managing director.

Rowe joined W+K Portland in 2005, serving in a lead account management role for some of the world’s most respected and innovative brands, including Starbucks, Heineken, Target, and most recently, Powerade (part of The Coca-Cola Company) and Facebook.

As account director of Facebook for the past three years, Rowe has partnered with senior executives at the social network to help introduce the power of marketing and creativity to a company that has grown to where it is without it. In addition to helping Facebook find its voice in the US marketplace, he also partnered with senior leadership at W+K Tokyo last year to bring the account to the agency.

Dave Luhr, W+K president and partner, says: "John is a strong and inspirational leader who fully appreciates the strengths and values of W+K."

"Over the past years, W+K Tokyo has build up a very strong position, and John’s skills will help build upon the already strong momentum we have in Tokyo and help us all further realise our full potential in Japan. On top of all this, John is just a smart, fun and humble man. And I can't wait to see what our trio of Tota, Mike and John are going to do together."

Rowe says: "W+K Tokyo has been on a roll. There are some really talented people in the office and I can’t wait to help Tota, Mike and the entire W+K family to continue the momentum. I had the pleasure of working with Blake and the rest of the team when we re-launched the Facebook brand in Japan last fall and was really impressed with the quality of thinking and creativity. And personally, as an adventurer, I’m beyond excited to move to Tokyo and immerse myself into the extraordinarily rich and unique Japanese culture." 
 
Tota Hasegawa joined W+K Tokyo as executive creative director in 2011, after spending 10 years at the creative collective Tomato in London. He was on a jury at 2014 D&AD and TDC (Tokyo Designers Club). He also teaches at various creative workshops as a guest lecturer. Mike Farr joined W+K Amsterdam in 2004 as a copywriter.

For the last decade his career path has found its home in the Amsterdam and Tokyo offices, where he worked as a group creative director on Nike, EA, GE and ESPN. In 2013, Farr joined W+K Tokyo as executive creative director. Rowe’s official start date at W+K Tokyo is April 20th 2015.