Grey, long dismissed as being as creative as its name, is giving a creative executive the job of leading its New York office, the agency's largest, which produces campaigns for marketers like Canon, DirecTV, E(AST)Trade, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble. Tor Myhren, who has been executive vice president and chief creative officer at Grey New York since September 2007, is being promoted to president; he will continue as the creative chief. The decision is to be announced to Grey New York's 600 employees on Friday. No one has served as president of Grey New York since Steve Hardwick left in March 2009. Grey and its parent, the Grey Group, owned by WPP, say the added responsibilities for Myhren, who is 38, will represent the first time the New York flagship is to be led by a creative executive. The appointment comes after what James R. Heekin, chairman and chief executive of the Grey Group, is calling the agency's best year since Grey New York was established in 1917. And he gives Myhren's creative abilities -- like 'a feel for contemporary consumers and deriving inspiration from popular culture' -- considerable credit for those results. The office has won 16 of 18 account pitches in 2010, Heekin said, and added new-business assignments with billings estimated at $672 million. 'When I hired Tor, the stakes were high,' Heekin said. 'It was a critical hire.' 'I have to candidly tell you, I did not think I would be hiring the next president of Grey New York,' he added, but since then, Myhren 'has made himself a leader; he grew enormously and people turn to him.' The new duties for Myhren, who joined Grey New York from Leo Burnett, are indicative of the growing importance of the creative side of the agency business as clients increasingly demand new ways to reach fickle, distracted, skeptical consumers. 'At the core of this agency has to be creativity,' Myhren said, 'in a way that hasn't been done before.' 'It's necessary for Grey, and it's necessary for the industry,' he added, 'because our clients are asking us, and all their agencies, for better creative.' That has been underlined in recent weeks as several agencies -- among them BBDO, Euro RSCG, McCann Erickson, Mullen, and Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos -- changed creative leadership at large offices or agencywide. 'Agencies are looking for hot creative talent,' said Nick Utton, chief marketing officer at E(AST)Trade Financial, 'and Tor must be on top of everyone's list.' E(AST)Trade hired Grey New York as its creative agency in November 2007, two months after Myhren's arrival, and 'he played a pivotal role in convincing us to come across,' Utton said. Three months later, the E(AST)Trade talking baby made his debut in commercials during Super Bowl XLII. 'We call him the father of the baby,' Utton said, laughing. The success of the baby campaign, which will appear again during Super Bowl XLV in February, 'is a massive testament' to Myhren, Utton said, adding: 'He's a strategist as well as a creative, and a very good strategist. It's a strong balance.' That praise was echoed by Mark Waller, chief marketing officer of the National Football League, which hired Grey New York as its creative agency last year. (Among the other new clients that arrived in 2009 were T.J. Maxx, Sargento Foods and the TruTV cable channel.) 'When Grey pitched me, they presented themselves as a new Grey,' Waller said. 'Definitely, we felt that when we saw them, in the ideas that were presented, and since then, in what they've delivered, they've lived up to that.' 'His creative judgment is outstanding,' Waller said of Myhren, and 'of all the creatives I've ever dealt with, he's one who listens as well as he creates. He brings a refreshing balance to the process.' 'At the end of the day, you have to judge an agency on the quality of the work and the way it works with clients,' he added. 'I'm thrilled for Tor; the promotion is well deserved.' Heekin said he asked Myhren about a year ago whether he would want to become president of Grey New York, but Myhren demurred. 'Then he came to me about eight weeks ago, said, 'I thought about that conversation for a year' and handed me a four-page handwritten plan.' Myhren confirmed that account. He said he believed he was ready for the challenges the job entailed. 'We've become a very good agency,' Myhren said. 'The question we have to ask ourselves is how to go from that to truly great.' As for the ability of a large agency like Grey New York -- with a reputation for solid, if stolid, work -- to make that leap, Myhren said: 'Big isn't bad. Slow is bad, especially in this environment. 'The only way to stay relevant in today's world is to be nimble and move at the speed of culture,' he added. 'And when I think of creativity, I don't think of the 'creative department'; creativity is everybody's business.' 