Design Bridge and Partners, part of WPP’s brand and design collective, has appointed Cristina Tazza as Managing Director for North America to lead the agency’s growth in one of the its most important markets.

“I’ve trusted Tazza to steer our business forward for the last few years, and she's consistently shown me how well-placed that trust has been,” said John Morris, Group CEO of Design Bridge and Partners. “She brings a rare combination of strategic depth, creative understanding and commercial focus, and she has already had a significant impact on our clients, our people and our global offer.”

Tazza will continue in her role as Global Chief Strategy Officer, serving a dual mandate. She joined Design Bridge and Partners in New York just as the agency was first building its strategy team and helping grow the business. In 2022, she moved into a global role, where she connected strategy, creative and client teams across the Americas, APAC and EMEA, and across the agency’s full range of work, from spirits and CPG to corporate enterprise. now she returns to New York to apply that connectivity to growing the business and the agency brand.

“Returning to our New York studio in this expanded role feels like a homecoming,” said Tazza. “For years, I've been working to make the world feel smaller, partnering with different people in different markets in service of global clients, but always with a local understanding. I’m eager to apply that same energy to the North American sector of the business, driving meaningful growth for our agency as well as our clients, and demonstrating how brand and design solve real business problems in an agentic AI era.”

In this cross-functional role, Tazza will lead the next chapter of the agency’s North America business, helping more clients tap into Design Bridge and Partners’ expertise designing brands with the power to move people, for brands like Mastercard, Lenovo and Suntory Global Spirits.

“I’ve sat inside how this agency works across every market and every part of our offer, and I know what we’re capable of. The work is already happening here – my focus now is amplifying it, fuelling it and inspiring it with the latest and greatest thinking from across our agency and our partners, drawing on everything I’ve learned along the way, which matters even more as we continue to scale our brand and design collective across WPP.”

Morris concludes: “Few people are better positioned to lead our next chapter in North America. She has helped establish the agency’s strategic capability, then helped scale it around the world. Now she brings that full-circle understanding home.”

Read more in MediaPost.