Hasta La Creative!

San Francisco agency Argonaut appointed Robert Riccardi as its first CEO, reuniting him with agency founders Rick Condos, Hunter Hindman, and Max Heilbron, who all worked together at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. 

Riccardi joins the agency from GS&P, where he most recently served as managing partner. He spent some 23 years with the agency, and worked with Condos, Hindman and Heilbron on accounts such as Doritos, Cheetos, Chevrolet and Cisco while there. Riccardi originally joined GS&P to help run what was then its biggest account, American Isuzu Motors. In 1996 he was named one of the agency’s six partners and took over management of the account services department. In addition to the aforementioned brands, Riccardi also worked with Häagen-Dazs, eBay, Netflix and Adobe over the course of his career with GS&P. 

Riccardi’s arrival follows the appointment of creative directors Shane Fleming and Anders Gustafsson last month to lead the agency’s MetLife account, for which the shop was named agency of record last September. 

“Hunter and I are proud and humbled that a talent the caliber of Robert would be willing to join us in helping to lead ARGONAUT into the future,” said Condos. “He is not only the smartest guy we’ve ever worked with, he’s a great friend as well.”

“There literally is no one on Earth that is more suited to this position, so thank goodness he said yes,” added Hindman. 

“I’ve been at GS&P for 23 years and it’s been brilliant. Now a new management team is emerging there that is fantastic and the work over the past year is as good as it has been in a long while. So, it felt like the right time to move on to something new,” said Riccardi. “I’m really excited to work with Rick, Hunter and the team at Argonaut. They are building a business and a culture that is exciting and new and I really look forward to being a part of it. Rick and Hunter have always been a rare breed of savvy creative leads who understand business as well as what is most current, inventive, and creative in our industry.”

[Image via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners]