Huge Names Chidi Achara New Chief Product Officer

CEO Lisa De Bonis Announces Strategic Executive Changes; In Addition to Achara, Matt Weiss Named Chief Brand Officer

New York, NY, Feb. 22, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huge, the design and innovation company under Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), today announced a set of executive hires and appointments to further accelerate the company’s growth. In her first major action as CEO, Lisa De Bonis revealed that Chidi Achara will join Huge as Chief Product Officer, and Matt Weiss will be appointed Chief Brand Officer.

“Building a well-rounded, connected leadership team with diverse experience is a personal goal of mine in 2024,” said De Bonis, CEO of Huge. “With Chidi and Matt on our team, I believe we can now accelerate delivering unique and innovative solutions for our clients.”

Chidi Achara: Scaling products and experiences to increase impact

Achara brings a depth of product experience to Huge. Most recently, he was President of Brain.ai, an AI and interface company whose mission is to democratize the AI economy and empower anyone to build AI applications. In that role, he oversaw marketing, product, design, user experience, and engineering for the launch of Imagica AI — a no-code AI app builder that enables users to create their own AIs using simple, plain language prompts.

“Chidi has a proven track record of innovation and excellence that spans technology, culture, branding and design experience,” said De Bonis. “He’s a natural connector. He brings the dynamic skillset and creative thinking we value at Huge, and shares our belief in the undeniable power of data and technology to inspire breakthrough product experiences.”

Recognized by Black Enterprise and Ebony Magazine as one of the country's most influential Black business leaders, Achara has also served in several senior brand and creative roles, including: Chief Brand Officer at fintech Stash, Chief Creative Officer at Simon Property Group, Vice President of Creative Services at Nike, and Executive Creative Director at BBH USA. He also sits on the board of the nonprofit, Charity: Water.

As Chief Product Officer, Achara’s mission is to scale collaboration across product innovation, design and engineering, and integrate AI technologies to accelerate growth for clients. Achara joins on the heels of the roll-out of Culture Decoder, a tool to help brands understand the cultural trends most important to their customers, and Creative Capital Index, which empowers businesses to optimize their organizational creativity — both of which are driven by the company’s proprietary AI-powered Living Intelligence Value Engine (LIVE).