{"id":3182,"date":"2021-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icom.imagemakers-inc.com\/news-press\/dna-becomes-minority-owned-and-led-with-appointments-of-new-ceo-and-chairman\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T10:49:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T10:49:34","slug":"dna-becomes-minority-owned-and-led-with-appointments-of-new-ceo-and-chairman","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/icomagencies.com\/news-press\/dna-becomes-minority-owned-and-led-with-appointments-of-new-ceo-and-chairman\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA Becomes Minority-Owned and Led with Appointments of New CEO and Chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle-based agency\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/dnaseattle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DNA<\/a><\/u>\u00a0is now a minority-owned and led agency, with Chris Witherspoon becoming one of the few Black agency CEOs and Alan Brown one of the few gay agency chairmen. This marks a significant move in an industry where diversity is sadly lacking. A recent\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaaa.org\/new-ad-industry-diversity-data-provides-a-new-benchmark-and-room-for-improvement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">survey by The 4A\u2019s<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of 165 agencies representing more than 40,000 employees found that only 4% of Blacks and African Americans in the industry hold titles of VP or higher.<\/p>\n<p>Witherspoon, a founding member of the advocacy group\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.600andrising.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">600 &amp; Rising<\/a><\/u>, and board chair of Building Leaders and Creators, a coalition of agencies that encourages inclusion in the business through student internships, says that DNA is \u201cmaking sure that it is as diverse as possible, and that we&#8217;re setting up a place and culture where folks can bring their whole selves to the office, no matter their background and where they&#8217;re from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With clients such as Rainier beer, Tableau, and Twitch, to name a few, DNA has just had its most profitable year ever. Brown\u2019s focus will be on expanding the business, while Witherspoon\u2019s will be focused on maintaining this momentum, retaining and hiring talent, and overseeing day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations to DNA for being recognized as leaders in change and diversity. We look forward to seeing what\u2019s next in store for the new CEO and Chairman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3183,"template":"","news_category":[17],"class_list":["post-3182","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DNA Becomes Minority-Owned and Led with Appointments of New CEO and Chairman - ICOM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/icomagencies.com\/news-press\/dna-becomes-minority-owned-and-led-with-appointments-of-new-ceo-and-chairman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA Becomes Minority-Owned and Led with Appointments of New CEO and Chairman - ICOM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Seattle-based agency\u00a0DNA\u00a0is now a minority-owned and led agency, with Chris Witherspoon becoming one of the few Black agency CEOs and Alan Brown one of the few gay agency chairmen. 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