People on the move featuring Refinery29, PebblePost, We Are Social

US telecom giant Verizon is to take its creative work in-house after hiring Apple’s former global group creative director, Andrew McKechnie, to serve as its first chief creative officer.

McKechnie has been parachuted in to help give Verizon an edge in the competitive telecoms sector by repositioning the brand as a leading tech company, overseeing its new persona from a plush office in New York.

From there he will lead a team of 60 tasked with marketing the brand, overhauling its website, remodeling its retail stores and devising a new suite of ads, ditching the ‘most reliable network’ branding upon which it has relied thus far.

Refinery29

Refinery29 has hired Jacqui Kavanagh, former Condé Nast video commercial director, to lead its UK and Germany sales divisions as the company looks to quicken its international expansion.

Kavanagh will also manage global brand partnerships out of Europe. She joins Refinery29 from Condé Nast Britain where she was commercial director of the publisher's video operation in the UK. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Vice UK, and was head of brand solutions at i-D.

Manchester United

Manchester United have hired former Yahoo and Sony Pictures executive Phil Lynch as their new chief executive of media as the club looks to roll out its international television channel app MUTV.

Lynch will be responsible for overseeing United’s digital media strategy which will include the recently launched MUTV app- a subscription based app for the club’s television channel which will offer fans in 165 countries the chance to view match broadcasts.

Karmarama

Karmarama has hired Rob Chandler as strategy lead for data-driven content and Daniel Prestes as strategy director.

Commenting on the need to bolster the strategy department, Jon Wilkins, Karmarama’s executive chairman, said: “The changing landscape of the communications industry has meant that agencies need to be able to react to the increased need of data informing and developing marketing strategies."

We are Social

We Are Social has hired its first executive creative director in London.

The social creative agency has tapped Guardian Labs' creative director Alistair Campbell for the role, which will see him lead the agency’s creative vision and "ensure its work sets the standard for creative social thinking globally".

Campbell began his career at St Luke’s, where he stayed for over a decade and has held creative director roles at Agency Republic and WCRS.

Rubicon Project

Greg Raifman, president of the Rubicon Project, has joined a wider executive exodus at the firm which has already seen six senior staff head for the exit door as the ad tech firm streamlines its business.

The boardroom shake out will see Raifman remain on Rubicon’s board of directors but will cease management of its day to day business in light of a spate of job losses at the firm, most recently with 125 people axed in November and the closure of its Toronto office, announced in January.

DigitasLBi

DigitalLBi has promoted Gav Gordon-Roberts to from executive creative director to executive creative director and managing partner, Edinburgh.

In his new role, Gordon-Roberts will work on the strategy for the DigitasLBi edinburgh while focusing on how to bring in new business and talent.

Proximity London

Jason Cascarina has been appointed as deputy executive creative director at Proximity London.

Having previously been at Ogilvy, Cascarina has worked for clients including British Airways, Land Rover and British Telecom.

North America

Omnicom Group

LatinWorks, part of Omnicom Group, has strengthened its leadership team by hiring Leo Olper to the position of senior vice president and managing director, and elevating Christy Kranik to partner and chief client officer.

Olper will be based in New York and will be responsible for bringing best-in-class account stewardship to a large portion of the agency’s client portfolio. He will also anchor and help fuel the agency’s growing presence in the northeast.

In addition, Kranik becomes the agency’s first partner and chief client officer.

PebblePost

Programmatic direct mail inventor PebblePost has named Marita Scarfi as its new chief financial officer. In her role she will support the expansion of the company’s west coast office in San Francisco and ensure the company is fiscally ready for the current growth it is experiencing.

Scarfi brings a successful 25-year record in operations and finance to PebblePost in numerous C-level roles at leading agencies. Previous to PebblePost, she was chief financial officer at 72andSunny.

Gyro

Gyro has appointed Mike Harris as global chief strategy officer of technology. In this newly created position, Harris will leverage his expertise for Gyro client HP.

Most recently, Harris was global chief strategy officer at 180 where he led the creation of HP’s iconic “Keep Reinventing” platform.

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