WICHITA — Most people probably didn’t notice when Bill Fialka took over as CEO at Associated Integrated Marketing – and that’s how he liked it – but now he’s gone.
“The position was eliminated,” says Shawn Steward, vice president of client service and public relations.
He won’t say if Fialka was fired.
“I’ll let people draw their own conclusions on that.”
Fialka didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
Steward says the agency is restructuring. He and three other vice presidents will manage the company. They include Dave Stewart, vice president and executive creative director, Luke Gutschenritter, vice president and group account director, and Kim Weprin, vice president of finance and human resources.
“This is not a financial decision,” Steward says. “This was a proactive decision to better allow us to operate more efficiently.”
He says, “We essentially saw a lot of duplication of effort at the management level. We felt that by eliminating the CEO level of the agency … we’re just getting the management closer to the client level and just streamlining across the board.”
Steward says the agency’s board of directors made the decision.
Fialka has been CEO since January 2010. He followed much more high-profile CEOs, including Mike Snyder and Bruce Rowley most recently. Fialka, though, deliberately avoided media and other attention.
