Zimmerman Advertising’s Goldberg resigning as CEO after 6 years

Michael Goldberg is resigning as Chief Executive Officer of Fort Lauderdalebased Zimmerman Advertising after nearly six years, the company announced Tuesday.

But he’s not going anywhere, says Brad Higdon, Zimmerman’s chief marketing officer. Goldberg will step into what Higdon called a senior adviser role.

“He’s essentially reducing his day-to-day role, what I’d describe as scaling back,” Higdon said. “This gives him an opportunity to spend more time on mentoring and coaching and what he’s done so well around here.”

Goldberg has spent more than 30 years in the advertising business, including 18 at Zimmerman and five as its CEO, the agency said in a statement.

“This is a plan that has been in place for quite awhile, only accelerated recently, which allows Michael the ability to pursue his personal ambitions of coaching, mentoring and teaching talent,” the statement said.

No immediate successor has been named. Goldberg’s duties overseeing financial aspects of the business will shift to agency founder and chairman Jordan Zimmerman and president Ronnie Haligman, Higdon said.

Goldberg spent eight years at the agency early in his career, then returned in 2014 following two years as partner and chief marketing officer at Deutsch New York. Prior to that he was chief marketing officer at Porter Novelli.

After he returned, Goldberg helped land arts and craft chain Michaels as an agency client, and in 2017 helped bring the national Office Depot account back to the agency.

Zimmerman, owned by advertising conglomerate Omnicom Group, operates more than 20 offices in 10 states, employing about 1,100 people, according to data firm Dun & Bradstreet.