BSSP hires David Eastman as chief operating officer
Independent agency BSSP has hired David Eastman to serve as its chief operating officer.
David Eastman
Eastman most recently served as founder and chief executive of Outlier. Before that, he was managing partner of MCD Partners, a digital customer experience agency that was acquired by M&C Saatchi last year. He served as chief executive of J. Walter Thompson North America for nearly four years earlier in his career.
According to BSSP, Eastman has been brought on board to help Greg Stern, co-founder and chief executive of the 24-year-old shop, establish the agency’s next generation of leadership. Stern will continue to lead the agency alongside co-founder and chief creative officer John Butler, but the hiring of Eastman is part of a long-term agency management succession plan.
“We have been looking for a senior executive with the experience to help us navigate as we continue to shape our marketing services offering,” said Stern in a statement. “David is the ideal next gen leader to expand our existing leadership team to help take BSSP into the future.”
Eastman said that BSSP’s “adventurous spirit” and the “tenacity of the founders” are what drew him to the Sausalito, California-based agency.
“I think there’s something special about a 24-year-old independent agency that still has the founders running it,” he said. “I believe media and creative belong under the same roof, particularly in today’s world. And I met a lot of smart people during the process, who I’m excited to be working with.”
His hire comes on the heels of others at BSSP. In April, Anderson Oliveira was hired as director of creative technology, a new role at the agency. He joined from San Francisco agency Eleven, where he’d served as technology director. Last year, the agency hired Keith Cartwright to take on the role of executive creative director.
BSSP works with brands including Nature Made, PowerBar and Allergan, Earlier this year, it resigned as Mini’s US agency of record after working with the auto brand for more than a decade, citing the brand’s cost-cutting and mandated reviews as reasons for ending the relationship.