Barbarian Names Joe Maglio CEO

Maglio also assumes the role of Cheil North America President, while continuing to serve as McKinney CEO

Joe Maglio comes to digital creative agency Barbarian on the heels of a hot streak at the creative, media and influencer agency McKinney, where he will continue to serve as CEO. Over the past five years, Joe tripled the size of the agency, including marquee creative wins: Popeyes and Little Caesars. He also oversaw the creation of McKinney Health and the acquisition of influencer agency August United. McKinney has since expanded its creator focused work, winning projects with Kroger, Microsoft, Choice Hotels, Popeyes and Samsung. Joe has also focused on company culture, leading to a 92% employee retention rate in 2023. Joe brings this energy and desire to grow to Barbarian, where he joins a digitally savvy, diverse team.

The existing senior leadership team at Barbarian includes: Vince Lim, chief creative officer and one of the creative directors behind the fearless girl statue on Wall St, Henry Fernandez, executive director of business development & marketing and Jo Hayes, director of data insights & analytics, who created the industry’s first public workforce diversity database. Barbarian is an agency steeped in digital innovation, winning the Grand Prix in the inaugural Innovation Lions contest in 2013. The agency understands emerging tech and serves as social AOR for American Express.

“Joe appreciates the Barbarian vision, he gets our values: bravery, generosity, resilience and hustle. Joe’s ability to get all parts of an organization aligned and working towards a shared goal is what we need to achieve exceptional growth at Barbarian,” said Vince Lim, chief creative officer. “At Barbarian, we have the creds, we’ve done work for Fenty, JBL, even a fashion line of ‘Sickwear’ for Mucinex – what we need is organizational leadership to help our agency grow, and that’s exactly what Joe brings.”

Joe’s move to Barbarian is part of his new remit overseeing Cheil North America as its president. Joining Joe is Bill Mattis, who will also maintain his role as managing director at McKinney while serving as head of growth for Cheil North America, working to bring Cheil Worldwide’s Cheil Connec+ offering to market in the region. Bill led McKinney’s new business and marketing department when the agency achieved 3X revenue growth. He helped secure client wins including Blue Diamond Almonds, Choice Hotels, Puma Running and Little Caesars.

Cheil North America stands out as a boutique powerhouse focused on creativity that drives commerce. All Cheil North America agencies, which include McKinney, Barbarian, CYLNDR, IRIS, Cheil Dallas, Cheil New York and Cheil Canada are focused on developing communications strategies and producing content and experiences that win the battle for attention — the competition for minds, culture and wallets — which represents the core challenge marketers face today.

“What Joe and Bill have been able to achieve at McKinney is nothing short of tremendous,” said Minsoo Kee, CEO & regional head, Cheil North America. “The North American market is served by huge holding companies that struggle to move at the speed of technology and lack a personalized touch. At the other end of the spectrum are independent agencies that are nimble, but may not have the resources, expertise or array of service offerings to meet the needs of today’s biggest brands. In the middle is Cheil Connec+. And with Joe and Bill leading Cheil North America, Cheil Connec+ is poised to serve brands in a way that no other agency model can.”

Source: Barbarian

  Agency, Barbarian, CEO, Cheil North America, Joe Maglio