The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Marks and Spencer People on the Move

People on the move: Hires and Departures at Marks & Spencer, EE, the Guardian and more

Author

By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

January 8, 2016 | 10 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.

Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer has announced that chief executive Marc Bolland is to step down in April after reporting a 5.8 per cent decline in sales of general merchandise over the thirteen weeks to 26 December.

The retailer insists that the move was not a knee-jerk reaction to the results and that succession planning had been in process for years with Steve Rowe, head of M&S’s food division, already lined up as his successor from April.

John Ibbotson, director of the retail consultancy Retail Vision, said: “After such a dismal Christmas, Marc Bolland has jumped before he was pushed.

EE

EE's chief commercial officer Marc Allera is to replace chief executive Olaf Swantee who will step down following BT's acquisition of the telco company.

The deal, which is in the final stages of approval, will see EE become part of the BT Group, creating a new line of business, which will be headed up by Allera.

Swantee said that he is stepping down from the role to "pursue new opportunities", although his new role has not been announced.

Time Warner

Time Warner has announced that chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes has extended his contract and will serve as head of the media giant for another three years.

Bewkes has served as CEO since 2008 and chairman since 2009. He joined the Time Warner family in 1991 when he took on the role of president and chief operating officer of HBO.

Under Bewkes’ time as CEO, Time Warner’s share prices have went up 162 per cent, according to the company.

The Guardian

Nick Hopkins is returning to the Guardian as head of investigations after BBC2's Newsnight lured him away in 2014 as its investigations correspondent.

In his new role, Hopkins will lead the Guardian’s investigations team to create agenda-setting investigative stories.

Hopkins worked at the Guardian for 16 years, holding high-level roles of investigations editor, national news editor, deputy foreign editor and defence and security editor.

KT Tape

Sports medicine company KT Tape has hired Russell Schleiden as chief marketing officer.

Schleiden most recently served as vice president of marketing at Talking Rain, the parent company of Sparkling Ice water, lemonade and tea. Throughout his career, he has held top marketing roles at Hostess Brands and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.

In his new role, he will be tasked with developing and driving the eight-year-old brand’s marketing strategy while growing sales nationally and abroad.

Dazed Media

Dazed Media has promoted Thomas Gorton to editor of dazeddigital.com.

Gorton joined Dazed Media in March 2014 as a news writer before becoming news editor and then deputy online editor.

He will continue to write and commission for the website, and will be taking on responsibility of editorial strategy and direction. Gorton will be tasked with increasing the reach of Dazed Media's digital channels, with a specific focus on expanding and sharpening its investigative lens on all aspects of youth culture - art, fashion, music and social issues.

LIDA

LIDA executive creative director Nicky Bullard has been snapped up by MRM Meteorite to join as as chairman and chief commercial officer.

Bullard, who has spent almost 16 years at the agency, worked on clients including IKEA, WomenforWomen, Land Rover and National Trust.

Matthew Heath, chairman at LIDA, said: “It has been such a pleasure, personally and professionally, working with Nicky. She is an extremely gifted writer and a highly creative person who leaves the department in amazing shape.

Mcgarrybowen

Dentsu Aegis-owned global creative agency mcgarrybowen is expanding its footprint in Asia with the launch of an office in Hong Kong.

The mcgarrybowen Hong Kong office will be led by greater China CEO Simone Tam and chief creative officer Jeffry Gamble (pictured), both of whom had held senior roles at DDB Group Hong Kong.

According to the agency, the need for an office in Hong Kong was led by client needs but the decision was also made because of the increasingly strong talent pool for agencies in the region.

BBDO

Juliana Cobb is joining Droga5 as group creative director after a five-year stint at BBDO.

She will work on the agency’s Prudential accountunder executive creative director Kevin Brady.

At BBDO, she served as a creative director where she worked on campaigns for Starbucks, AT&T and American Family Insurance. She started her career in San Francisco 15 years ago where she worked at agencies including Fusion and McCann Erickson.

Jaywing

Jaywing has announced the appointment of David Wood to the newly created role of chief creative director. The role has been created to place significant emphasis on its creative work for clients and unify its creative offering across the business.

Wood, previously one of Jaywing’s managing directors, is now responsible for the overall creative vision of the agency, which boasts a wide portfolio of clients including E.ON, PepsiCo, Castrol, Sky, first direct, Pets at Home and Ann Summers.

Starcom Mediavest Group

Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG) has tapped Thaer Namruti for the role of, senior vice-president of precision marketing strategy.

In this newly created role, Namruti will be responsible for driving the group’s precision marketing capabilities across a portfolio of global network clients.

With over 20 years’ worth of experience in data, technology and analytics across global markets, Namruti re-joins the company from Acxiom where he held role of European strategy director.

Cheil

As part of Cheil’s global expansion plan, Richard Newman joins the agency as Asia Pacific regional chief growth officer.

As such, Newman joins Cheil’s global growth team, which includes recent hires Cat Davis in London, as well as Wassim Daniel in Dubai, led by Lotta Malm-Hallqvist, the agency’s global chief growth officer.

Newman joins from McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific where he was regional chief marketing officer.

Jack Morton

Jack Morton Worldwide has appointed Vijay Patel as the new vice-president, director of social media and interactive.

Based in the brand experience agency’s London office, Patel will be leading Jack Morton’s social media and branded applications offering.

He comes to Jack Morton from content agency VCCP Kin, and prior to this was at Beattie McGuinness Bungay where he oversaw social media strategy and development.

Admedo

Programmatic advertising platform Admedo has announced that former Unanimis president and founder, Khalil Ibrahimi, has joined the business in the newly created role of UK managing director.

With over 20 years’ digital experience, Ibrahimi has pioneered numerous ventures, including founding the UK sales operations for Excite, Ask Jeeves, as well as co-founding OpenX with his Unanimis partners.

Ibrahimi will focus on growing Admedo’s UK business with brands, agencies, and publishers and optimising operational efficiency.

Corbis Entertainment

Bill Gates company Corbis has named Jennifer Collins as vice president, breaking news and entertainment.

Collins had joined the company in December 2015 and reports directly to Greg Isaacs, senior vice-president of native and entertainment.

Based in Los Angeles Collins will now be responsible for leading the day-to-day business operations and strategies with a primary focus on further developing Corbis Entertainment’s celebrity content business.

Now

Remco Graham is joining Now as executive creative director.

He will join Now’s founders, John Townshend, Melissa Robertson and Kate Waters as a partner in the agency.

Graham is a multi-award-winning creative director and was responsible for creating the Honda ‘Illusions’ campaign which won awards around the world, notably a Gold Lion at Cannes and Gold at BTAA in 2014.

InSkin Media

Ad tech company InSkin Media has promoted Fran Cowan to the new role of marketing director.

Cowan will be responsible for InSkin’s global marketing and communications strategy, and continue to report to InSkin’s chief executive, Hugo Drayton.

She joined the company in 2012 as marketing and communications manager, and was previously marketing manager at Specific Media, and a founding marketer at MySpace International.

Summit

Online retailing specialist Summit has hired Martin Corcoran as head of insight consulting.

He will be responsible for further developing Summit’s proposition for insight consulting through retail needs.

Martin was at Dunnhumby for over seven years, most recently as health and beauty category director of communications and media for the Tesco UK market.

Canva Worldwide

Canvas Worldwide, a joint venture between Horizon Media and global creative shop Innocean Worldwide has appointed Paul Woolmington as chief executive officer.

Woolmington will work out of both the Los Angeles and New York offices.

Prior to joining Canvas Worldwide, Woolmington worked as an advisor, advocate and consultant devoted to a portfolio of client, media, agency advisory, consultancy and board directorship roles for various brands and is an active angel investor.

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

Marks and Spencer People on the Move

More from Marks and Spencer

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +