WASHINGTON: ICF Next has hired Jeff Caporizzo as senior partner and executive creative director in its Washington, DC, office.
He started in the role on February 10, reporting to managing partner Mary Schwarz with about 100 direct reports.
Caporizzo will manage the agency’s creative work for federal government organizations and other public-sector clients. He has replaced Bruce Campbell, who moved to ICF’s commercial marketing team.
Previously, Caporizzo was executive creative director of Edelman’s Washington, DC, office, a position he left last June. His resume also includes a stint as VP and creative director for Ogilvy in the nation’s capital.
He started speaking with former colleagues now at ICF shortly after leaving Edelman.
“Then [Schwarz] and others on the executive team and I started talking and it was a great conversation,” he said. “We spent time getting to know each other...and towards the end of year we started finalizing it.”
Edelman hired Kevin Zeir, former creative director at Purple Strategies, as Caporizzo’s replacement at the end of last year. An Edelman representative declined further comment.
Caporizzo said he has enjoyed developing creative teams as much as actual creative work in his career, so he was attracted to ICF’s openness to change and its “willingness to build something.”
“[There’s] such an appetite and aptitude for that here,” he added.
Caporizzo’s first goal is promoting cohesion between creative functions and the rest of the agency to avoid “assembly-line thinking.” The second, he said, is ensuring the creative team takes time to look beyond day-to-day tasks to expand its capabilities. Finally, he wants to be sure the creative staff sees itself as part of ICF and vice versa.
“I want to be sure we’re not just the insular creative team but we’re helping build a culture where we are all working together,” Caporizzo explained.
Bryan Specht, ICF Next’s former chief growth and innovation officer, left the agency and started a consultancy called Salient Group Ventures in January. Last August, ICF, the holding company of ICF Next, named John Wasson as CEO, succeeding Sudhakar Kesavan.
