People on the move featuring Vogue, Pinterest, Shortlist Media, Derby and more
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
IPG Mediabrands
Claire Spencer has been promoted to managing director of insight and alanytics at IPG Mediabrands while Geoff Copps has been promoted to managing partner of head of data.
The brand has also announced it’s global collaboration plans with Nielson.
VML
VML has announced the promotion of Jason Xenopoulos to global chief vision officer and chief creative officer for the EMEA region. Xenopoulos will drive VML's long-term strategy and positioning across 33 offices in 15 countries and six continents.
Wunderman
WPP-owned agency Wunderman has hired creative director Daniel Bonner as its global chief creative officer. As part of the agency's executive leadership team, Bonner will shape Wunderman’s creative vision, lead the network’s creative teams across 200 offices in 70 countries and oversee its work for clients which include BT Group, Microsoft, Shell and T-Mobile.
With over 20 years' experience in digital marketing, advertising, consulting, creativity and technology, Bonner joins Wunderman from SapientRazorfish where he was the global chief creative officer and part of the agency’s executive leadership team.
2Heads
2Heads has poached David Blesto from IPG Mediabrands to take on the role of global chief financial office.
With over two decades of industry experience, Blesto will be tasked to work with the department heads across commercial, strategies, legal and contractual to support the growth of the agency’s accounts.
Nano Interactive
Alastair Gornall has joined Nano Interactive as non-executive chairman.
Gornall brings industry experience in media, event and communication businesses to the role.
Vogue
Alice Casely-Hayford has been appointed as digital editor of British Vogue.
Hired by editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, who took on the role last year, Casely-Hayford joins from Refinery 29 where she was fashion and beauty director and helped launch the brand in 2015.
The Lead Agency
The Lead Agency has been made two senior appointments with Justin Thorne joining as head of digital and Anthony Neill joining as performance manager.
In his new role, Thorne will work with different teams to create technology-led campaigns while Neill has been appointed to a newly created role to ensure the company runs smoothly and efficiently.
Weslayan Bank
Wasleyan Bank has appointed Simon Welling as director of sales and marketing.
Bringing 30 years experience within the banking industry, Welling will lead the sales and marketing activities while also overseeing new products.
Futurice
Teemu Moisala has been promoted from managing director to chief executive ahead of the Futurice’s planned international expansion.
Moisala takes over the role from co-founder Toumas Syrjanen, who has held the position for the last ten years.
Shortlist Media
Seb Randle joins Shortlist Media as regional sales director in a bid for the publisher to reach a wider audience outside of London.
The newly-created role will see Randle head the sales for ShortList, Stylist, Emerald Street and Mr Hyde.
Smarts Communicate
Smarts Communicate in Scotland has appointed Linda McIntyre as associate director following a 13-year tenure at Consolidated PR. Meanwhile, Ewan MacGill has joined as senior account manager from creative agency Wire.
The appointments follow on from food brand Symington’s appointing the agency to handle trade and corporate PR.
Snaptrip.com
Mustafe Awale joins Snaptrip.com as senior performance marketing manager and Robin Skidmore has been promoted to non-executive board director.
Awale will be responsible for ensuring the brand's strategic profitable partners and affiliate relationships while Skidmore, who invested in the company three years ago, will work to support the brand moving forward as it hopes to grow.
Halal
Halal has bolstered its senior team with the appointments of Steffen Haars and Caroline Koning as directors.
Haars will take on the role as film director while Koning will be commercial roster director.
Kinetic
Out of home agency, Kinetic has appointed Nicole Lonsdale as chief planning officer.
Previously head of activations and client development, Lonsdale will take on the new role with immediate effect.
Omnicom
Omnicom has announced the promotion of Mark Halliday to chief executive of performance in APAC and the departure of Lee Smith, who was the chief executive of platforms.
According to the agency, Halliday’s promotion is a commitment to maintain its work in digital and performance marketing.
Mindshare
Mindshare South Asia has restructured its upper tier in a bid to aid its collaborative efforts with other parts of the company.
The GroupM agency announced that Amin Lakhani of team Fulcrum will take on the role of president, client leadership of Mindshare India where he will be responsible with managing client relationships while attracting more brands aboard. He has been in the company for 14 years.
CtrlShift
Audience solutions company, CrtlShift, has promoted Dominic Powers to chief executive, to take over Deepika Nikhilender, who has stepped down to pursue new opportunities.
Previously an advisor to the board and chief business officer at CtrlShift, Powers will be tasked with leading the organisation’s growth strategy and positioning as an adtech solutions provider.
FreakOut Holdings
Japanese adtech firm FreakOut has appointed Narayan Murthy Ivaturi as vice-president of Southeast Asia and India. Based in Singapore, he will spearhead business operations in SEA and India, and will be responsible for liaising with group companies for strategic partnerships, product integration and development.
Kantar
Kantar has elevated Jon Foged to chief executive officer for its Australian businesses at Kantar Millward Brown and Kantar TNS.
Foged will relocate permanently from Singapore where he was chief strategy and business development officer for Kantar APAC, and chief executive of Kantar Cambodia and Myanmar.
Gyro
The creative agency, Gyro has promoted Rimi Sweis to head of media for Gyro APAC and Geraldson Santos to account director. Sweis has held multiple media account roles within Band Interprise and previously Carat Enterprise.
Santos’ role will support the innovation of gyro’s B2B media offering, which includes continuing to work across key accounts including Epson, USG Boral and Microsoft.
Grey Group Indonesia
Neha Bansal has joined Grey Group Indonesia with a remit to oversee all strategic planning process for the companies Indonesia key accounts.
Joining from Lowe Lintas India, where she held the role of senior brand planning director, Bansal will take on the role of head of planning and regional planner.
Pinterest has tapped former Google and Square exec Francoise Brougher to join the company as its first chief operating officer, tasking her with scaling up its global advertising offering.
She will be responsible for growing Pinterest's operations around the world as well as heading up global ad sales, partnerships, measurement and business development.
Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners
Global creative agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners (KBS) has hired Amber Wimmer as director of interactive production. In this role, she will be responsible for overseeing all digital productions, evolving the agencies interactive process and standards and contributing to the expansion of our creative interactive capabilities.
With an integrated production background, Wimmer joins KBS from Google Creative Labs where she launched a voice command music making experiment.
BBH New York
Matthew Anderson has been appointed as chief growth officer at BBH New York.
Anderson brings with him a wealth of experience from Code and Theory, Publicis NY and The Kaplan Thaler Group.
Video Advertising Bureau
The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has appointed Lauren Leff as vice-president, marketing and communications. In this newly created role, Leff will oversee the organization’s internal and external communications supporting the VAB’s advocacy and dedication to providing advertisers and their agencies with the most current and actionable media insights on the expanding world of premium, multiscreen video content.
Most recently, Leff was a senior vice-president at New York’s Kite Hill PR overseeing account teams for Salon Media Group, Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), Trusted Media Brands and Tapad.
Derby
Creative production company Derby has signed director Ryan Balas to its roster of modern directors. A seasoned director and cinematographer, Balas co-founded TheFoodPornHub.com with his brother, an editor and his frequent collaborator, showcasing his passion for the elevated tabletop experience.
Sizmek
Independent buy-side advertising platform Sizmek has appointed Nikos Acuña as its chief visionary. The role, created for Acuña, will see the former head of the Rocket Fuel Institute lead research on emerging trends at the intersection of data, technology and customer experiences, according to Sizmek.
KardZee
KardZee, a mobile media platform that personalizes business and consumer relationships, announced that experienced marketing professional Peter Bray has joined the company as strategic marketing advisor. Formerly the head of digital for Saatchi & Saatchi in NYC, Bray is also the founder of Bray & Co, a specialty marketing consultancy.
In his new role, Bray will assist with marketing initiatives and will introduce KardZee to other companies.
Martha Stewart Living
Martha Stewart Living, the cookery, homewares, craft and DIY brand founded by its namesake chef and television personality, has appointed Abbey Kuster-Prokell as creative director and James Maikowski as art director.
Maikowski joins the firm after 10 years as art director at Food & Wine, while Kuster-Prokell was previously design director at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Orci
Orcí, a hispanic-led, full-service marketing agency in Santa Monica, recently hired Javier Güemes as its creative director and Lois Mosgrove as group account director.
Orcí, which has catered to clients such as Coca-Cola, Dole, and Honda, called the announcement part of what it calls a "broader expansion of efforts.”
TBD
San Francisco-based agency TBD announced the appointments of Leila Moussaoui and Sara Uhelski, art director and copywriter, respectively.
The pair have previously worked together for several years in San Francisco at Intel and Pereira & O’Dell. Both, their new agency said, “bring a shared history of creativity to TBD’s growing team, furthering the agency’s global mindset.”
We're Magnetic
Experiential marketing firm We’re Magnetic has announced that it has hired Phil Koutsis to be executive creative director. Koutsis will be based in the company’s NYC headquarters and will spearhead all global creative and creative team development across We’re Magnetic’s UK and US offices.
Venables Bell & Partners
Independent advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners announced the hiring of Uli Kurtenbach as group strategy director and Cara Watson as group brand director. The two leaders will partner in spearheading the Audi business and strategic initiatives for the brand. Watson joins Venables Bell & Partners from creative and design agency Pearlfisher, while Kurtenbach joins from R/GA’s creative shop Hustle in LA.
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