NEW YORK — Rowan Benecke is departing Ruder Finn less than two years after joining the firm as its first chief growth officer.

CEO Kathy Bloomgarden said Benecke’s exit is in conjunction with the elimination of the chief growth officer role, which was newly created when Benecke assumed the position in September 2018 — one month after departing Burson Cohn & Wolfe and the global technology chair role he held at Burson-Marsteller since 2014.

At that time, Benecke was hired to grow the agency's business globally, while also working internally to integrate technology across Ruder Finn’s core practices — health and wellness, corporate reputation, technology and innovation and consumer.

Since then, however, it has become clear that new business is driven primarily by practice leaders with deep knowledge in their areas of expertise, meaning the chief growth officer role didn't play out as envisioned, according to Bloomgarden.

Bloomgarden praised Benecke's performance in the job, but said about keeping the position,"It didn't make sense for our organization."

Benecke said: "I resigned after leading the agency to double digit growth last year and am proud of all we accomplished together. But it’s time for me to move on now.  I look forward to what’s next." His last day will be July 1.

Benecke joined Burson-Marsteller from Text100 to help reinvigorate its global technology practice. Since the merger, BCW has reshaped its technology offering, merging US firms North of Nine and PPR into tech subsidiary Axicom as part of an effort to turn the latter into a global brand, and naming Michael Ann Thomas to lead its global tech practice.