Although he had a large role in continuing to shape Publicis’ digital approach, Kenny’s departure was not a surprise. After helping chart Publicis’ path after the Digitas acquisition, Kenny has completed the two big jobs he was assigned at Publicis. His first major assignment entailed establising VivaKi as a digital touchpoint for all parts of the ad company’s networks. His second big mission involved integrating Razorfish into the organization following last year’s $530 million acquisition of the digital shop from Microsoft.

Publicis has lost a number of high profile digital execs last winter, when Razorfish’s Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Lanctot and Managing Director Jim Watson, who both chose to remain with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) a few months after the acquisition closed. Outside of Razorfish, Tim Hanlon, who helped launch Denuo, exited from his role as EVP and managing director of VivaKi Ventures, Publicis’ new media VC arm, and recently joined marketing investment bank Catalyst S+F as a partner.

In a statement, Publicis said that one of reasons Kenny is leaving has to do with the requirement that he would have had to relocate to Paris, something he was reluctant to do for family reasons.