Brazilian husband and wife, Ana and Hermeti Balarin, are leaving Mother London, where they have been executive creative directors since 2015. They will join Wieden + Kennedy Portland as executive creative directors in January 2022.

The pair have been at Mother since 2007, beginning as interns. They have since earned ad fame, working on major campaigns for KFC, Coca-Cola, Ikea, Stella Artois and Boots, and winning an impressive collection of Cannes Lions and D&AD Pencils as well as other industry awards. In 2017, they were named as two of the four partners running Mother London’s management team, beside Chris Gallery and Katie Mackay-Sinclair. They led the KFC FCK campaign and Greenpeace’s Rang Tan.

Robert Saville, founder of Mother, stated, “It’s with a mixture of sadness and admiration that we say goodbye to Ana and Hermeti from the Mother family. They’re testament to the way that Mother nurtures and grows some of our industry’s greatest talent. And we wish them every success in their new role.”

The Balarins stated, “When we came into advertising there were two agencies we dreamt of working at: Mother London and W+K Portland. We feel extremely lucky to have grown up in one of them and now incredibly honoured to have been invited to help lead the other.”

W+K chief creative officer, Karl Lieberman, commented, “They have a great track record leading an agency and empowering people to find their voice and take ownership of the work and the culture. They care deeply about the world and have a point of view and the conviction to use their influence and creativity to change things for the better. That’s what W+K is all about, and we are really excited to have them in Portland.”