People on the move: Hires and departures at Dennis Publishing, Unilever, Alibaba and more

Dennis Publishing has appointed Archant’s digital boss Paul Hood to the newly-created role of head of digital for its technology division.

Hood will be responsible for the strategic direction, profitability and growth of the technology division, which currently publishes 13 websites, reporting to managing director of Dennis Digital Pete Wootton.

Unilever

Kellogg's former digital director Alex Tait is to replace Sarah Mansfield at Unilever taking over the role of media director for the UK and Ireland.

At Kellogg's Tait oversaw digital marketing strategy and operations for the EMEA region from the brand's Dublin office. He left last year to return to London for family reasons.

Alibaba

Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba has promoted its chief operating officer Daniel Zhang to chief executive in the wake of its latest financial update, which saw the business record a 45 per cent rise in revenue.

The change at the top will take place on Sunday with the departure of incumbent Jonathan Lu, who will remain as vice chairman.

Twitter

In a surprising twist in Twitter’s search for its next chief media officer, the social media brand has reportedly appointed its chief financial officer, Anthony Noto, to handle its marketing operations.

The news was broken by The Verge, who reported that an unnamed source claimed the decision was made at a meeting at Twitter headquarters on Monday.

Nationwide

Nationwide executive vice president and chief marketing officer (CMO) Matt Jauchius has left the business.

Jauchius has spent nine years at the American insurer, joining as VP of strategy in 2006 before rising to chief marketing officer in 2010.

Based in Ohio, Jauchius was behind the highly controversial SuperBowl advert, which showed a young boy talking about the things he would never be able to do because he had died in a preventable accident.

Square

Mobile pay app, Square, has hired Mary Kay Bowman, who most recently worked for Amazon, launching Amazon Local Register, a product that was created to rival Square.

According to her LinkedIn bio, Bowman will be the head of payment partnerships and operations. In this role, she will help the brand expand globally.

CNN

CNN International Commercial has appointed Rob Bradley as head of digital advertising sales and data.

Bradley, previously from IDG UK, has been tasked with expanding the network's digital advertising sales and data offering, providing clients worldwide with opportunities around CNN's audience and content.

V&A museum

The Victoria & Albert (V&A) museum has appointed David Bickle as director of design, exhibitions and FuturePlan, replacing the late Moira Gemmill who moved to the Royal Collection Trust at the start of the year.

Bickle, who will take up the post in August, joins from Hawkins\Brown Architects where he is currently senior partner.

Credit Karma​

Credit Karma has named Nikhyl Singhal, formerly of Google Hangouts, as its new chief products officer (CPO).

According to re/Code, Singhal left Google in January amidst various executive changes. Singhal also craved a switch back to his startup roots.

DigitasLBi

Matthew Jacobson has been named executive vice-president global executive design director at DigitasLBi, where he previously served as senior vice president group director.

In this newly created role, he will collaborate on key client and new-business initiatives across the agency’s offices worldwide.

Michael Ashley, who previously served as creative director at Mullen’s Pittsburgh branch, will now be taking up the same role at DigitasLBi’s Atlanta office.

In this role, he will lead Atlanta’s creative team while developing concepts, stories, and campaigns for clients. Ashley will also be responsible for driving creative projects and proposals for internal and new business initiatives.

Starcom MediaVest Group

Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has promoted Scott Curtis to the newly created role of European mobile strategy and development director.

Curtis was mobile development director for the UK for the last year and a half and prior to that was global associate director.

Additionally, the group has appointed Marcus Brown to the newly created role of global growth officer for EMEA.

Brown will be responsible for driving growth and performance in the region to deliver precision, content, and technology to clients.

We Are Social

Social media agency We Are Social has expanded its offering to China with the unveiling of a Shanghai office.

Pete Lin, formerly general manager and chief marketing strategist at Gravity Group Asia, will lead Shanghai operations as managing director, with Ying Chang leading creative.

Havas Lynx

Havas Lynx, the global healthcare communications group, has made a raft of new hires following a successful period in 2014.

Tom Richards, who joins from BJL where he served as creative director, will take charge of the agency group’s creative output as chief creative officer, Jon Linscott joins Tim Woodcock as joint managing director of Havas Lynx London, while Dr Vernon Bainton takes a position as medical director of Havas Lynx Medical.

Exterion Media

Exterion Media has poached JCDecaux’s Glenn Iceton for the agency group sales director role of its Kinetic team.

He will have oversight of the media owner’s relationship with the WPP owned agency Kinetic, particularly focusing on non out of home media channels. Iceton joins in September and will report to national sales director Mark Heather.

MEC

Media agency MEC has announced that its global chief talent officer Marie-Claire Barker has joined the board of directors at Populist.

Populist is a non-profit based in New York that brings together marketers and their creative skills to tackle social problems.

Geometry

Geometry Global London has appointed Andrew Bell managing partner and client services director.

Bell, who joins from Cheil UK in the same role, has been tasked with building stronger partnerships with clients including Coca-Cola and Emirates.

Publicis

Publicis London has hired adam&eveDDB planning partner Darren Savage in the role of joint head of strategy as it looks to bolster its strategic team.

Savage, who will work with Kari Freeburn in the role, is the first senior strategic hire in London since Dylan Williams' appointment as global chief strategy and innovation officer last year.

Siteworx

Digital agency, Siteworx, has named Liz Duggan, formerly of Gorilla Group, as its director of ecommerce.

While at Gorilla Group, Duggan worked with clients such as JC Penney, Baileigh Industrial, and World Vision.

Salix & Co

Virgin Care's head of communications and patient experience Russell Elliott has joined PR agency Salix & Co today as client services director.

He arrives at what Salix & Co’s managing director Sarah Wrixon labels an “important juncture in its development” and will play a key role in mapping out its future growth trajectory. Elliott's mandate is to create a more integrated strategy between the agency’s public relations, public affairs and social marketing.

BlisMedia

BlisMedia has bolstered its senior sales team, appointing Gaetano Faleo as head of international sales, EMEA and Emma Lacey as Omnicom group head.

The hires come as the ad tech and big data firm aims to propel expansion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Collider

Collider has hired Mark Baron as production director to lead the agency's production arm and oversee global brand projects as well as events.

Baron joins from creative agency Imagination where he was production manager, working with global brands including Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford and MasterCard.

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