Here's the story, as reported by AdWeek:

Wieden + Kennedy, well-known for its careful selection in adding new partners, named four additional ones at the independent Portland, Ore.-based agency: Portland managing director Tom Blessington, London managing director Neil Christie, Portland executive creative director Mark Fitzloff, and global interactive ECD Iain Tait.

In a statement, agency co-founder Dan Wieden said, “We are very picky, slow, and deliberate when it comes to adding new partners. The truth is we have an abundance of talent throughout the network with new opportunities popping up quite regularly.”

The last two W + K execs to be given a stake in the shop was in 2009. At that time, Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth, executive creative directors in the agency’s London office, were the first new partners in 13 years.  

The agency’s other partners are Wieden, COO Dave Luhr, ECD Susan Hoffman, W + K Entertainment executive producer Bill Davenport and global ECD John Jay.

Among the new partners, Portland managing director Blessington joined W + K in 1990 after working at Hill Holliday, Boston. Since then he has run the Nike accounts at W + K Portland and Amsterdam. He was group account director for Miller Brewing Co. and Coca-Cola in Portland and was the first managing director of W + K, New York. Blessington spent four years at TBWAChiatDay before returning to W + K in 2006, when he assumed his current role.

London managing director Neil Christie began his career at ABM before moving on to Yellowhammer and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. He then spent eight years at TBWA, where he ran accounts like Nissan and Cadbury before he became client services director and then managing director. Christie joined W + K in London as managing director in 2004.

In Portland, ecd Mark Fitzloff joined the agency in 1999, working as a copywriter on the Alta Vista, Nike, and Coca-Cola accounts. He was appointed creative director on Old Spice, with the mandate to revitalize the brand, and has been associated with the brand’s prize-winning work in recent years. He was made an ecd in 2008.

Ian Tait joined W + K as global interactive ecd in 2010. He was previously a founder and creative director at London digital agency Poke, where he worked on accounts like American Express, Orange, and Yahoo. An initial initiative of Tait’s after joining W + K was working on the Old Spice “Response Campaign,” where Isaiah Mustafa, featured in the "Man Your Man Could Smell Like" pitch, responded to fans in a social media campaign.

Interview in Boards magazine with Iain Tait on his decision to join Wieden + Kennedy.

Here it is:

As founder of top London digital shop Poke, Iain Tait has been involved with some of the best web work to emerge in the space for clients including Oasis (Rubberduckzilla), Orange (Unlimited) and Nokia (Room 10101). In early February he announced he would be leaving to join Wieden+Kennedy, Portland as digital executive creative director in late March. Boards caught up with Tait to discuss the move. 

Why the move and why Wieden?

I gave a talk at a PSFK conference in London three years ago called “Ten Reasons Why Digital Is Better Than Advertising”. I went back to it recently and thought, shit, someone’s going to dig out that presentation and it’s going to come out and haunt me. In looking at it again, the things that really stood out were: entrepreneurialism within digital, and the structures that are in place. In an advertising agency, the structure is there to produce advertising. In a digital agency it’s there to produce things. The talk was about passion, being surrounded by people who really give a shit about the new digital world we’re immersed in. All of the things in that talk could apply to Wieden. Dan Wieden talked internally about wanting to be one of the best digital agencies in the world. On the awards judging circuit I’ve met people from the various Wieden offices. If you put them together you’d already have one of the best digital agencies in the world.

What changes do you plan to instigate?

There’s already a bunch of stuff underway, like putting technologists in the mix and making those cultures work together. The really promising thing is that they’re up for trying absolutely anything. I don’t know if you know about the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) in Portland and Platform in London? [They’re initiatives where] Wieden is like an incubator: they’ll give [small technology firms] space and resources at minimal or very low cost. In exchange they get them involved in projects, problem solving and doing workshops. I think that’s something that’s going to pay dividends if they do it right. Again, they’re taking risks.

The great advertising Wieden has done has been hugely culturally resonant. It’s taking the craft and the thinking that’s made all that brilliant advertising in the traditional world and making it digital. Empowering that work and making it work harder.