People on the move: hires and departures at Vice, T3, MEC Global, Exponential and more

Vice Media has brought the former assistant to Barack Obama and deputy chief of staff at the White House, Alyssa Mastromonaco, on board as chief operating officer (COO).

Mastromonaco, who will join Vice in January, will be responsible for overseeing operations for all of its divisions and platforms,spanning digital, mobile and linear TV.

Meanwhile she will be tasked with expanding the youth brand’s network of channels, partnerships and joint ventures worldwide.

Mediablaze

Former editor-in-chief of Future Publishing-owned consumer brand T3, Kieran Alger, has been appointed to the same role at content marketing agency Mediablaze to boost its editorial team.

Alger will oversee propositions for brands including LG, Tesco, outdoor apparel brand Merrell, and global antivirus software provider ESET, and will be responsible for building communities through the development of branded online content strategies.

Exponential

Exponential Interactive has appointed former Emap and Talksport executive Jason Trout as UK commercial director.

Trout joined Exponential from media and events company World Trade Group where he was chief operation officer.

Purplebricks

Confused.com's Joby Russel has been appointed director of online estate agency Purplebricks.com in addition to his role of marketing director at the car insurance comparison site.

Russell, who led the repositioning of the Confused.com brand in 2013 with the launch of the Brian the Robot character, will work closely with James Kydd, Purplebricks’ marketing director and former managing director of brand and marketing at Virgin Media, to drive forward the advertising and marketing strategy.

Press Association

Multimedia news agency The Press Association (PA) has appointed former BBC, MSN and Bing editorial executive Darren Waters to the new role of social media editor.

He will take up his position at PA on 1 December with a brief to put social media at the heart of the newsroom.

Most recently Waters held the editor-in-chief position at Microsoft UK, where he was responsible for all editorial content on MSN UK and the Bing Apps across the Windows’ platforms including news, sport, travel, finance, health and fitness, and food and drink.

MEC Global Solutions

MEC Global Solutions, MEC’s international hub based in London, has made a raft of new hires, to join its international strategy team in addition to the three senior strategists already in place.

Chris Worrell, Francis Turner and Filippo Giannelli have been headhunted to further strengthen the team, working on the agency’s international clients including Vodafone, SABMiller, Johnson & Johnson, Beiersdorf and Activision Blizzard.

Chris, Francis and Filippo join strategy partners Andy Reynolds and Shula Sinclair, headed by Stuart Sullivan-Martin, chief strategy officer for Global Solutions and EMEA.

Yummi

Yummi Media Group has announced that Joe Evea will join the company from DCM as chief commercial officer.

In his new role Evea will be responsible for driving Yummi’s commercial strategy as the business continues to expand its global footprint. Additionally he will focus on developing the global optimisation of the company’s technology platform (phonix) through its mobile application products, which include cinime, the app created with DCM in the UK and Wedong in China.

LoveLive

Music media company LoveLive has appointed media expert Mark Cranwell to the newly created role of chief commercial officer.

Cranwell has worked with LoveLive since its inception six years ago, initially as a client and then in the capacity of strategic advisor and subsequently, investor.

Hangar Seven

Content creation house, Hangar Seven, has continued to strengthen its retail marketing team with the appointment of Nicola Blair-Park as group account director.

Blair-Park has over 20 years experience, both client and agency side, and joins from Publicis Blueprint where she was head of marketing.