Smarter Together with Hill Holliday

New Zealander Graham Ritchie, 48, has been named new strategy chief for American advertising agency Hill Holliday, overseeing a department of 38 strategic planners who work on brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Bank of America, John Hancock and Cadillac. Ritchie, who is entering the US market for the first time, spent the bulk of his career in New Zealand and Australia most recently as a managing partner at Publicis Mojo in Auckland.

Among the challenges facing Ritchie in his new Boston-based job  is scale: the largest department he managed previously had less than 20 people. The speed and competitiveness of the US marketplace also can be relentless.

Ritchie said: “In a funny way, an agency is almost like a band. If a band is tight, they like each other and they like the same style of music, some pretty interesting things will come out of it.”

Similarly, Ritchie described his management style as “you and I together are smarter than just me.”