Digitas President Takes Bain Post

Michael Ward, president and COO of Digitas , a Boston marketing technology specialist, will leave at the end of the year for a job with Bain Capital.

Ward previously worked for Bain, a prominent investment firm, before joining Digitas in 1997. His impending departure triggers a reorganization of Digitas’ upper management ranks.

Robert Willms will lead the company’s San Francisco and Boston offices. Laura Lang will oversee New York and Chicago operations. And Greg Johnson will head European operations as well as corporate strategy.

Robert Cosinuke will handle the training and development, employee relations and marketing departments. Jeffrey Cote, executive vice president and CFO, will add COO responsibilities.

The executives will report to Chairman and CEO David Kenny, who thanked Ward for his contributions and declared that Digitas is stronger than at any point in the past two years.

At the same time it announced Ward’s resignation, the company said it would beat previous financial forecasts for its fourth quarter.

“This reorganization further strengthens Digitas by delayering overhead and placing senior-level attention on developing and scaling our offerings,” Kenny added.

Digitas clients include AT&T, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Morgan Stanley, Terra Lycos and Xerox.