Colle McVoy executive aims to unite agency's account, project teams to boost speed, efficiency

Alycia Hamilton, taking on the new role of executive director of account and project management, is uniting those departments to serve clients more quickly and efficiently at Minneapolis ad agency Colle McVoy.

Hamilton previously was senior vice president of account management at Digitas' Chicago office, where she worked for nearly nine years.

Hamilton's boss at Digitas was Jessica Henrichs, who moved to Colle McVoy in 2019 as managing director/head of client growth and recently was promoted to president. Hamilton joins Henrichs on the agency's senior leadership team.

"Colle McVoy is working to establish a really smart, cohesive partnership between project management and account management," Hamilton said. "To do that, it's helpful to bring in someone who sees and understands both sides of that craft and how they can both work together to serve clients."

The integration is part of the agency's move to an agile operating model where clients get dedicated teams with resources dedicated to their businesses, Hamilton said.

Hamilton began her career at Kraft Foods as an account manager for Gevalia coffee and led digital strategies for CoverGirl Cosmetics at a previous agency in New York City.

"Alycia is a business operations wizard who can manage large, innovative teams and processes, while finding efficiencies and spotting new growth opportunities," Henrichs said in a release.

Colle McVoy also has promoted Puja Shah to group creative director, joining the creative leadership team after four years at the agency.

Shah previously worked at Fallon, RPA in Los Angeles and Leo Burnett in Mumbai. Shah's championing and mentorship of diverse talent gained her recognition as an Advertising Week 2020 Future is Female award winner.

Q: What opportunities or challenges come with integrating account management and project management?

A: I've been incredibly inspired with everyone that I've been talking to at Colle McVoy, and there's so much dedication and hunger to do what's best and what's right for our clients. They're very open to change. I think there will be some inherent challenges with learning how to approach pushing yourself out of your comfort zone with something that perhaps you weren't doing previously. There will be a natural learning curve but I'm inspired by everyone being very open to working together to figure it out.

Q: How will the integration work?

A: I sometimes compare account management to the front of the house and project management to the back of the house. The project management team does sometimes have to come to the front of the house and check in on how it's going to make sure that they can have the back of the house operating smoothly. I'm a firm believer that these two departments need to operate to the best of their possible ability to deliver against the client's needs.

Q: How will clients and the agency benefit?

A: Clients will be attracted to this because they're going to have smaller, more concentrated teams who will be solely focused on understanding their business and how they prefer to operate, and dedicated people. The agency will be better off by looking at how both departments operate together to operate faster and smarter and deliver bigger and better work, to take on more in a more efficient way.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.