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People on the move: departures and hires at ITV, Hearst, Etihad Airways and more

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

November 28, 2014 | 10 min read

This week has seen another wave of appointments and departures at brands, media owners and agencies. The Drum has rounded up the key hires below.

Fru Hazlitt announces decision to step down as ITV managing director

ITV

Fru Hazlitt, ITV managing director, commercial and online, is to step down after almost five years in the role.

Hazlitt's decision to stand down comes as her family have decided to relocate away from the UK for the next year.

“I have had a wonderful time at ITV,” said Hazlitt. “I’ve really enjoyed building a fresh team, transforming the commercial side of the business and launching new revenue streams across advertising, pay, online and interactive. I work with extremely talented people and clients and I am very proud of all that we have achieved together.”

Current joint commercial sales director Kelly Williams will step up to become managing director, commercial joining ITV’s management board and assuming responsibility for all of ITV’s commercial broadcast activities.

In addition to management board responsibility for technology, Simon Pitt, current group director of strategy and technology, will become managing director online, pay and interactive.

Hearst

Hearst Magazines UK has promoted Ella Dolphin to the role of group commercial director, a post which will place her at the heart of the publisher’s cross-platform commercial strategy.

Tasked with heading up a sales team Dolphin will also be responsible for devising creative products and offering solutions for advertisers across mobile, tablet, web, print and events sectors.

Previously Dolphin undertook the role of group publishing director for titles including Cosmopolitan, Red and Esquire and the business is currently recruiting for someone to perform this role.

Etihad Airways

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has appointed Shane O’Hare to the role of senior vice president of marketing to take the brand position “up another level”.

O’Hare, who joins from his position of president and chief executive of private jet company Royal Jet will have responsibility for developing the airline's marketing strategy, and for driving its commercial strategies, brand management, communications, and product and service development.

Financial Times

The Financial Times has promoted Jon Slade to the role of managing director of business-to-consumer operations.

Slade, who was previously commercial director of digital advertising and insight, will also join the FT board and oversee print and digital B2C marketing, customer services, business development and FT Live – the publisher’s conferences and events arm.

During his time as global ad sales director Slade spearheaded the publisher’s trials of a new method of digital trading – selling blocks of time to advertisersin a bid to tackle part of the industry’s ad viewability issues.

Dominic Good will take over as global advertising sales director, reporting to global commercial director and deputy chief executive Ben Hughes.

Nabs

Diana Tickell, former executive director of marketing of Barnardo’s, has joined the National Advertising Benevolent Society (Nabs) as its new chief executive.

Tickell will draw on her experience in various strategy and communication roles within Barnardo’s over the last decade to replace Zoë Osmond, who left the position in October to join Oystercatchers.

She will take up the role in February 2015 and will be supported by Charlie Parkin who will become the director of media relations.

Mobsta

Mobsta has appointed George Dixon, previously Mediacom UK’s head of mobile, as strategy director.

The appointment follows a major restructure of Mobsta’s UK sales team, and will see Dixon oversee the agency sales strategy whilst helping to develop Mobsta’s geo targeting products specifically MobGeo+.

He will also join the project team working on Mobsta’s soon to launch tech platform ‘Optio’.

Cake

Adrian Pettett has been named as Cake chief executive as co-founder and current CEO Mike Mathieson steps down to return to the music industry with new consultancy, Harmonic.

In addition Jim Dowling has been appointed as managing director of Cake in the UK.

Of the changes to the management team of the Havas-owned agency, Pettett said: “Whist I am extremely keen to capitalise on the energy we have at Cake, there is no doubt, we will all miss Mike greatly, both for his drive and vision over the past 15 years as well as his infectious enthusiasm for the business...For us at Cake it is a real opportunity to build on the momentum we have generated over the past year with a string of high profile new clients and awards.”

Grey London

BBH senior producer Glenn Paton has joined Grey London to become the agency’s first head of film.

As head of film Paton is charged with strengthening the agency’s creative output from a production perspective, procuring great directors and unearthing new talent. As well as finding new ways of working to tackle unusual or challenging briefs.

He will work closely with Grey London chairman and CCO Nils Leonard and head of production, to whom he’ll report, Jacqueline Dobrin who called Paton “a huge asset”.

Gravity Road

Gravity Road, the creative content agency, has appointed Leo Burnett’s Katie Lee to serve as its first managing director and partner, following a number of new business wins which has seen the fledgling firm grow to a team of 50.

Lee will be tasked with securing further work alongside fellow appointee Pete Connolly from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, who will lead the agency’s creative development.

Little Dot

Nick Cohen, currently managing partner and head of content at WPP’s MediaCom, has been appointed as vice president content, strategy and brand partnerships at Little Dot Studios.

Set to join Little Dot Studios in February Cohen will take responsibility for leading the studio’s business with brands and agencies, as well as providing strategy and development expertise across the company’s activities.

Of the appointment Cohen said it was “start-ups like Little Dot who are shaping this new world and creating the content formats of tomorrow” and added that he was “incredibly excited” to be joining the business.

Xaxis China

WWP trading desk Xaxis has named Mickey Zhang as its new managing director for China.

Zhang brings more than 10 years’ digital advertising experience to the role which will see her lead operations throughout the country whilst also managing GroupM search and e-commerce.

Patrick Xu, chief executive, GroupM China, commented: “Xaxis has been an integral part of GroupM’s digital strategy since the launch of its China operations in 2012. Zhang has been at the helm of GroupM’s award-winning search team in China and will no doubt be a great addition to the Xaxis team.”

Frame

Former Engine Group creative services director James Pais has joined Glasgow-based creative marketing agency Frame to support the agency’s continued commercial and creative development.

Pais has worked in the advertising industry for almost three decades and during that time has held senior positions at a host of agencies including Publicis, Elvis, Weapon 7 as well as the Serbian digital production company, Fabrika.

Rapp

Rapp has promoted Mike Wells to the newly created role of digital director charged with driving digital integration across the agency’s creative, media and data client base.

Wells has been with Rapp for six years and has been responsible for the running and growth of a number of key digital accounts.

Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather has appointed Paul Shearer to the role of chief creative officer across the Middle East and North Africa.

Shearer brings with him 25 years’ worth of advertising experience to the role and has worked with brands including Guess Jeans, Nike, Audi and Levis.

Adbrain

Data intelligence company Adbrain has hired Paul Turner to lead the company’s global commercial deals in his newly appointed role as chief commercial officer.

Turner, who previously served as executive VP revenue for social media buying platform Adaptly, will operate out of Adbrain’s New York office, serving as a launchpad for international partnerships.

Before Adaptly, Turner was head of EMEA for Invite Media.

DDB & Tribal Worldwide

DDB & Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam has hired Apo Bordin to strengthen the agency’s strategy department. He will also be responsible for business, brand and connections planning for Europe, Middle East and Africa reporting to Alistair Beattie, chief strategy officer, DDB Europe.

Prior to joining DDB & Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam, Bordin was a brand strategist at Pereira & O’Dell in San Francisco, where he was responsible for strategic planning for brands such as Intel, Toshiba, Skype, and Mattel.

Before that, Bordin worked for Diesel and at the marketing and social media department at Tripping International, the San Francisco based international technology company.

In his new role, as a strategic planner, Bordin will be focusing on blue chip brand clients including Heineken, Adidas, McDonald’s and Mars Petcare.

Captive Minds

Content marketing agency Captive Minds has appointed Gareth Wesley as strategy director.

Following a degree in statistics, Wesley has split his career between agency and client side roles, the former in strategic planning and the latter in business turnaround situations.

Taking the agency’s skills set, Wesley will address business challenges by aligning insight capabilities with planning rigour.

Gravity Road ITV RAPP

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