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Marketing People on the Move

People on the move: hires and departures featuring Google, John Lewis, AKQA and more

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By Jenny Cleeton, Social Media & Video Content Creator

October 28, 2016 | 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 moves from the EMEA, APAC and North America regions below.

people on the move featuring google, john lewis and AKQA

People on the move: hires and departures featuring Google, John Lewis, AKQA and more

EMEA people are on the move

John Lewis

John Lewis has promoted its commercial director Paula Nickolds to the role of managing director, marking the first time a woman has been at the helm of the brand in its 152-year history.

The department store has announced that Nickolds, who has held a number of senior roles at the company, will take over from veteran boss Andy Street who is stepping down to run as the Conservative candidate for the mayor of West Midlands.

As well as being the first female to run John Lewis since it was founded in 1864, Nickolds is now the only woman to run a high street department group.

Google

Ronan Harris has been promoted from EMEA sales lead to managing director of Google UK and Ireland, filling the gap left by Eileen Naughton in July when she became the company’s vice president of people operations worldwide.

Ireland-based Harris will make the move to London to perform the role, having been at the company for 11 years.

Additionally, Fionnuala Meehan, vice president of EMEA for Google Marketing Solutions, has been appointed site lead in Ireland alongside her existing role. She is tasked with coordinating Google’s operations and relationships in Ireland.

Newsquest

Sean Duffy, the former commercial director for First Rail, has returned to Newsquest as its commercial director in Scotland with the ambition to transform the business, five years after he left the Glasgow newspaper publisher.

Duffy joined Newsquest this month for a second time, having previously held the interim role of change management director at National Express for nine months, his initial spell at Newsquest where he led the sales team lasted almost a year-and-a-half before he joined First Rail.

VCCP Media

VCCP has chosen former iCrossing chief media officer Sam Fenton-Elstone (pictured above) as its first chief digital officer for its media division.

Prior to his appointment, Fenton-Elstone was a digital consultant. It followed a nine-year stint at global digital agency iCrossing where he rose through the ranks from paid search analyst to chief media officer.

George P. Johnson

George P. Johnson has appointed Mary Kabra to newly created role of marketing director.

Joining from Ogilvy, Kabra will work closely with the company and project marketing teams in over 30 offices.

AKQA

AKQA has appointed Naiad Angel as client partner in London while she studies for her MA in Digital Culture and Society at King’s College.

With over 15 years experience in the industry, Naias will work across different client accounts while reporting directly to general manager Ron Peterson.

Wunderman

Wunderman UK has appointed Jo Boyden as managing partner after joining from Havas Helia in the same role.

Boyden will oversee the GSK account while also working to accelerate the brands growth.

Exterion Media

Exterion Media has announced two new senior appointments, Mick Ridley as chief data officer and Karen Rumble as people and culture director for the UK.

In his new role, Ridley will be responsible for leading the company’s data-driven solutions for clients and partners while Rumble will have responsibility for the full range of people-focused activities.

Dragonfish

Dragonfish has appointed for Fitness First global human resources director, Niall Cluley as partner and director of consulting. In his role, Cluley will develop the agency’s capabilities and work on building the engagement within the UK.

Having previously worked with managing director Richard Webley and will now report directly to him.

Neustar Marketshare

Neustar Marketshare has announced the appointment of Luis Chaves and Sven Bagemihl as managing directors in the UK and Germany.

With over 25 years in the industry, Chaves will be charges with deployment of holistic marketing and digitial attributions solutions for a variety of global brands. Meanwhile, Bagemihl, with over 20 years experience, will focus on digital media, digital marketing solutions and display advertising.

APAC people on the move

Havas Media Group

Havas Media Group has named Karl Wu as Greater China CEO, overseeing five offices across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Wu will be based out of Beijing and lead the whole group including Havas Media and Arena Media, as well as specialist agencies Socialyse, Affiperf, Ecselis and Mobext.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite has ramped up its leadership in Asia Pacific by hiring Rich Meiklejohn as its first general manager for the region.

Meiklejohn joins Hootsuite from a 25-year career spanning a wide range of software leadership roles. Most recently he was at Cognos, a business intelligence and performance management software company.

VCCP Sydney

VCCP Sydney has lured creative director Paul Sharp from The Monkeys in Sydney, reuniting him with former colleague executive creative director Gary Dawson.

Sharp has been brought on board to help boost VCCP’s position in Australia as a challenger agency for challenger brands.

North America people on the move

Carmichael Lynch

Minneapolis-based creative agency Carmichael Lynch has added to its leadership team, hiring Lachlan Badenoch as chief strategy officer.

Lynch brings 20 years experience to the position, joining the company after working with global brands such as Nintendo, Heinz, BMW Films and Nestle. He comes to Carmichael Lynch most recently after running an independent consultancy as well as working at Minneapolis strategy agency Zeus Jones.

Marketo

Marketing software company Marketo has hired Steve Lucas as its new chief executive officer, taking over for founder and current CEO Phil Fernandez, who will step down on November 1.

Lucas brings a proven track record of leading multi-billion dollar businesses through worldwide digital growth to Marketo.

He was most recently president, enterprise platform & analytics, at SAP, where he drove innovative strategies to accelerate offerings from inception to market within the company’s enterprise platform and analytics solutions.

Publicis Group

Publicis Group has announced the resignation of Laura Desmond, chief revenue officer.

Desmond, according to a release, has been on a leave of absence since July due to a “significant family health matter” and is set to leave the role on December 31st. Rishad Tobaccowala has been in Desmond’s stead and will continue in the role as strategy and growth officer of Publicis Groupe.

[L]earned

Sam Zises, founder and CEO of content marketing and design agency, [L]earned Media has been appointed as president of the Branded Content Marketing Association) BCMA USA.

Zises will be tasked with leading the organisation across the US as it aims to grow its membership base of content marketers.

Gateaman+Dave

Pittsburgh-based marketing communications firm, Gatesman+Dave, named Shannon Baker as the company’s new president.

Baker joined Gatesman+Dave in 2007 as the director of public relations, becoming partner one year later. She built the firm’s PR social media business into one of the Top 100 independent PR firms, according to O’Dwyers PR.

M&C Saatchi LA

Today, the Los Angeles based agency has promoted Smith to executive creative director (ECD) after demonstrating her expertise and dedication to the agency.

Smith started her run at TBWA\Tequila and then was part of the integrated team at TBWA\Chiat\Day, where she worked on Nissan, Infinit, Sony and Energizer. At M&C Saatchi, Smith counts being on the teams of award-winning campaigns for Epson and the San Diego Zoo as part of her success.

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

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