Time Inc. digital marketing exec leaves to join Arnold Worldwide

Angela Wei, executive director of digital marketing in Time Inc.‘s branded services group, will leave the company to join Arnold Worldwide as chief digital officer of the agency’s New York office.

She will join Arnold on Jan. 23 and will report to Lynn Power, managing partner and president of Arnold’s New York office. The newly created role is in response to clients’ new technological demands and the shifting business climate, Power said.

“Business is just moving very fast, and we need more hybrid people and interesting thinkers, people who can cross-pollinate our thinking across departments,” Power said. “The role will be a little tricky because she’ll be wearing a lot of hats. It’s part visionary, part blowing things up, part anticipating client needs, part strategy, part operations, part production.”

Power said she saw a number of candidates for the position, but “saw a lot of people who lean heavily on one skill set or another,” she said. “We wanted someone who could do it all.”

When asked how she convinced Wei to vacate her high level position at Time Inc., Power declined to discuss specifics.

“I’m just glad we did,” she said. “It wasn’t an easy decision for her. But here we come with a very strong entrepreneurial spirit, and I think that appealed to her.”

Wei said her background made the role at Arnold a good fit, and said the split from Time, Inc., her employer since 2009, is amicable. “I’ve had such an amazing opportunity to partner with some premier brands at Time, and I accomplished a lot,” she said. “It was time for me to take on new challenges.”

Those new challenges include reshaping the digital capabilities of Arnold’s New York office and working to better provide digital offerings to Arnold clients in 16 offices in 15 countries worldwide.

“It’s particularly interesting because the role encompasses new challenges like growth, operations, the constantly changing and emerging technological space and what does the agency of the future look like,” Wei said.

Before her role at Time Inc., Wei spent two years as SVP of marketing and production at Heavy, an online video entertainment company.

A Time Inc. representative was not immediately available for comment.