Ryan Partnership Chicago is expanding its offerings through the addition of corporate sibling SolutionSet, and has reached out to Mat Lignel to run the combined operations. Both companies are owned by Hyper Marketing Inc.; SolutionSet provides clients with CRM, digital and data analytics while Ryan Partnership is a shopper marketing and promotions agency.
As president of the Chicago agency, Lignel, most recently a Draftfcb evp, reports to Ryan chief Mark Modesto, the former North American president at Draftfcb. The two worked together for years at the Interpublic shop and at predecessor agency, Foote, Cone & Belding. (Modesto exited Draftfcb in August 2010. He joined Marc USA’s Chicago office last October and moved over to the Ryan Partnership in May.) Lignel also knows Zain Raj, Hyper Marketing’s CEO from their time at FCB.
Lignel, who left Draftfcb in March, says he wanted to change course in his career.
“The industry is going in two different directions, with growth at big global networks and that at smaller entrepreneurial ones. I’ve spent time at big global companies. I was looking for a different kind of challenge. The Ryan Partnership is the perfect opportunity for that. It’s private, growing aggressively, and I felt I had the opportunity to make an impact.”
Lignel began his career at the Paris offices of TBWA and Lintas, working on brands like Kronenberg 1164, Playskool, Virgin Megastore, Colgate Palmolive and Lipton. In 1994, he joined FCB to work on SC Johnson and, after three years in Chicago, he moved to FCB London to run all of SC Johnson’s brands. Lignel returned to FCB Chicago in 2004 where he became director of new business. In 2006, he picked up operational duties during the Draftfcb merger and later managed the agency’s Kmart account.
Clients at the newly-combined operations at Ryan Partnership Chicago include GlaxoSmithKline, Energizer, Wrigley, Bel Brands, Office Depot, Brown Shoe and Cintas. Christine Nardi Diette was president of the agency before SolutionSet's business was folded into the office.
In January, SolutionSet Media Whiz acquired shopper marketing promotional company D.L. Ryan Cos., the parent of the Ryan Partnership, among other companies. Hyper Marketing was created to house the two entities under Raj, the former SolutionSet Media Whiz chief.
 |  |