Swede Begets Swede at McCann New York

McCann Erickson appears bent on carving out a little Stockholm in the Big Apple – and London as well, for that matter. Since recruiting Swedish-born Linus Karlsson, formerly of Mother New York, as chief creative officer in New York earlier this year, the agency has gone on to recruit other Swedes to top creative jobs.

Its most recent Scandinavian hire is that of Andreas Dahlqvist (pictured), creative director on DDB Stockholm’s celebrated “Fun Theory” campaign for Volkswagen. Dahlqvist, whose history includes stints at DDB’s Swedish predecessor agency Pardiset and interactive agency The Bearded Lady, assumes the new post of executive creative director in McCann’s New York offices.

Earlier this month, FarFar founder Matias Palm-Jensen, also a Swede, joined McCann in Europe as chief innovation officer there. He’ll be based in London.

Linus Karlsson was not immediately available to comment because he is traveling in, ahem, Sweden. No word yet on when the New York and London offices will be stocked with Lingonberry juice.

According to a statement from Karlsson, Dahlqvist “will be responsible for hands-on oversight of the creative work for all NY agency clients and importantly for leading the transformation of McCann’s NY flagship agency into a creatively driven organization.”

In other agency news:

Hyper-local agency Geomentum restructured. Recently hired CEO Sean Finnegan named Lisa Bradner as chief client services and growth officer, Todd Curry as chief digital officer, and Emily Olson-Torch as director of client services.

Isobar hired Dan Beder as managing director in Boston. Beder joins the Aegis-owned agency from Digitas, where he was EVP, marketing director. He replaces Vangie Deane, who is stepping down after 10 years with Isobar.

Arnold Worldwide hired Kim Bartkowski, formerly of Digitas New York. As digital creative director in New York, she’ll oversee creative teams on digital initiatives for the Hershey Co. She’ll start July 5.