Purpose-driven creative agency Public has named a new chief creative officer, appointing Jill Applebaum to lead its team.

Applebaum brings “experience, attitude and ambition” to the role, according to agency founder and CEO Phillip Haid. She has held senior creative roles at several New York agencies, including FCB, Barbarian and, most recently, Wunderman Thompson as its CCO. She has also worked as a global creative strategist on Facebook and Instagram at Meta.

Her experience with major brands – not only Meta, but also Pepsi, Nestlé, Oreo, Burt’s Bees, Jaguar and others – is “very important” to Public’s overarching goals, because the agency “has gone from a niche player in a niche space to working with some of the largest brands in North America,” Haid says.

At Public, she will lead on brand accounts including J&J, Mejuri, Rivian, Crocs, Canadian Tire and RBC, alongside the agency’s more than 40 employees at offices in Toronto and New York City – the latter opened in 2019 – as well as in Boston.

She replaces former CCO Guy Barnett, who took the role of SVP of brand and creative development at Sphere Entertainment Co. in March.

“Looking for a new CCO gave us an opportunity to rethink what we needed. Public is a unique agency, focusing exclusively on helping brands advance social and environmental issues – what we call ‘profit with purpose,'” Haid tells strategy. “We have had excellent growth in the past few years and were looking for someone who could be both a creator and conductor, building a world-class team of creatives that want to change the world. Jill has this in spades.”

For her part, “helping authentic brands advance their social and environmental impact while simultaneously cleansing my karma was an opportunity I just couldn’t resist,” Applebaum says.