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18 Feet & Rising Butterflycannon Gravity Road

People on the move: Hires and departures at Rolls-Royce, Paddy Power, Zoopla and more

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By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

April 24, 2015 | 9 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.

Paddy Power has snapped up Gav Thompson

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce has named Warren East as the successor to current chief executive (CEO) John Rishton, who retires on 2 July.

A former CEO of ARM Holdings until 2013, East has served as a non-executive director at the engineering firm since January last year and was picked for his track record of commitment to innovation and R&D.

Paddy Power

Paddy Power has snapped up Gav Thompson as its new chief marketing officer, (CMO) tasking him with the strategic direction of the Paddy Power brand.

With 20 years experience working in strategic marketing with brands including Guinness, PlayStation, Toyota, 3, Absolut, Pepsi, FedEx, Bacardi, O2 and giffgaff, Thompson aims to propel the bookmaker into new realms of customer entertainment.

Zoopla

The Zoopla Property Group has hired former MoneySuperMarket brand chief Gareth Helm as its first ever chief marketing officer.

It comes after the group's main brand, Zoopla, lost market share to rival sites OntheMarket and Rightmove earlier this year.

Verve Mobile

Verve Mobile, a location-based mobile advertising platform, has appointed Nada Stirratt to succeed Tom MacIsaac as CEO.

Previously, Stirratt served as Acxicom’s first chief revenue officer where she was responsible for the company’s global client-facing initiatives including sales, account management, and delivery.

Publicis Chemistry

Emma Rush has joined the management team at Publicis Chemistry as head of client services.

Rush has spent the past 18 months at TBCH as chief executive of direct marketing where she managed the agency’s merger into RAPP Group.

Maxus

Maxus has enlisted Damian Blackden as chief strategy officer where he will join the agency’s global management team.

The global media agency has tasked Blackden, a former Omnicom Media Group president in EMEA, APAC and LATAM, with developing and executing strategy through the Maxus network.

MediaCom

MediaCom has appointed Trixie Ferguson Gray to the newly created role of senior partner of branded content and experiences.

Gray will be responsible for leading content strategy, custom program development and activation for clients. She will report directly to Mark Fortner, managing partner.

ButterflyCannon

Arron Egan has been appointed as associate creative director at ButterflyCannon.

Egan brings 15 years design experience to the role with Jon Davies, co-founder at ButterflyCannon, “thrilled” to see him joining the “ButterflyCannon team at such an exciting time.”

Edelman

PR firm Edelman has appointed Adidas' PR and social chief Leila Fataar to the newly created role of director of media strategy.

Fataar will oversee the strategic and tactical development of through channel campaigns for Edelman's clients.

Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick has appointed former Conservative parliamentary candidate and blue chip consultant David Skelton to lead its public affairs practice.

Skelton, who has worked in politics, policy development and public service reform for over a decade, is to join the PR firm in May.

The Union

Andrew Lindsay has announced that he is to step down from his role as executive creative director at the Union, the agency he co-founded with Simon Scott, Ian McAteer and Mark Reid in 1996.

In what is the end of an era for both Lindsay and the firm, he leaves to pursue other business interests although will remain on hand in an advisory role for key clients.

Golley Slater

Golley Slater has named Cat Jennings as managing director of its London PR agency.

Jennings joins Golley Slater following six years at Ketchum where she was a director of the agency’s brand marketing division, working with global clients including P&G, Booking.com and Philips.

Love

Love has appointed Ben Akers, former creative director of Chief Productions, to the role of creative director, advertising.

Prior to joining Chief Productions Akers spent six years in Australia where he was part of the original Droga5 Sydney team and held the role of creative director at both Y&R and Republic of Everyone. Before moving to Australia he also spent time with Mother, HHCL and BBH.

Taxi Studio

Former Brand Union chairman Glenn Tutssel has joined Taxi Studio as executive creative director as part of a raft of new hires at the agency.

Tutssel, who left Brand Union last November, takes the helm at Taxi Studio alongside founders and creative partners Spencer Buck and Ryan Wills, as the agency moves from a design-centric business to a more holistic creative agency model.

Gravity Road

Entertainment start-up Gravity Road has named former BBC marketing chief Ruairi Curran as its new head of planning.

Working with clients including Sainsbury’s, Bacardi Global, Cadbury and Bauer Media Curran joins fellow recent recruits following the recent appointment of MD Katie Lee and creative Partner, Pete Connolly.

Forever Beta

Integrated creative and innovation company Forever Beta has appointed Isobar's Nick Craske to the role of creative director.

Craske, who has previously worked at R/GA and Digitas LBi, will support the agency's executive creative director Matt Saunby across all creative activities and will oversee the agency’s Google accounts.

Fuhu

Robert Palmer has been named chief creative officer at Fuhu where he will be responsible for building a creative team to support the firm’s growth.

In this newly created role, Palmer will build an internal agency that focuses on both product specific creative executions as well as branded initiatives. He will lead both the traditional and digital advertising strategy.

Organic

Chris Kelly has been named chief creative officer at digital marketing agency Organic, where he previously served as executive creative director at the firm’s New York branch.

Kelly will be responsible for driving the creative vision for the agency’s offices in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, and Atlanta. He reports to CEO David Shulman.

BoomAgers

Tim Love has been named as chairman of the board of advisors at BoomAgers, an advertising agency that specializes in marketing to an aging population.

Love retired from Omnicom two years ago, where he served as vice-chairman of Omnicom Group and CEO of its Asia Pacific, India, Middle East, and Africa regions.

NatureBox

NatureBox has hired StubHub’s former chief marketing officer, Ray Elias, to fulfill the same role.

Elias will be involved in all of the food brand’s marketing efforts, including brand, acquisition, consumer experience and retention.

Havas

Havas Worldwide Chicago has named Chuck Anderson of NoPattern Studio its creative director of design.

In this role, he will help set the design vision for the agency, infuse a sense of craft into client work, and mentor young design talent.

Anderson is a Chicago-based artist, designer, photographer and founder of NoPattern Studio, which he started in 2004 at the age of 18.

Futurice

Service creation consultancy Futurice, has launched its London office, appointing Tom McQueen as managing director.

McQueen joins from experience design agency Method where he was most recently executive director for client services.

James Bruce has also joined the team as design lead, from Disney where he was head of creative for Disney Interactive. Additionally, Mikko Heikelä is joining from Futurice’s Helsinki HQ to be London’s technology lead.

18 Feet & Rising

18 Feet & Rising has bolstered its management line-up by bringing in Brad Fairhead as a partner.

Fairhead has 20 years’ experience in the industry, having worked within the media, creative and digital agency environment.

Most recently he was managing director of Hypernaked, the business formed out of a merger between Naked Communications and the digital agency Hyper that he founded in 2007.

One Two Four

Content agency One Two Four has announced that Matthew Robinson, former client services Director at AMV BBDO, has joined its board as group development director.

He will be responsible for client acquisition, business development and marketing.

Whilst at AMV Group, Robinson was also managing partner of Weapon7, where he was responsible for bringing in new clients including the consolidated digital business of Bacardi UK.

Want to get your career on the move? Check out The Drum Job page and follow @TheDrumJobs for updates.

18 Feet & Rising Butterflycannon Gravity Road

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