People on the move featuring McCann, We Are Social, Now and more

Feed has appointed Steven Bennett-Day, former group creative director at Havas, as its first chief creative officer. He is the first hire by Feed’s newly-appointed chief executive Matt Lynch, and charged with launching a dedicated creative digital division to work on Feed’s global clients including eBay, Virgin, PayPal and Gumtree.

Based from their Shoreditch HQ, he will drive Feed’s creativity and innovation and sit on the global executive team.

BBH

BBH London’s managing director, Adam Arnold, is to take on the new role of global chief marketing officer, reporting into global chief executive Neil Munn. The move will see deputy managing director Karen Martin promoted to UK managing director.

GRM Marketing

Tim Witmer has been promoted to vice president of digital project management, bringing his ten-year experience at the agency to the new role.

Having started as a digital project manager, Witmer has worked his way through the company in a number of strategist and digital roles.

Because

Creative experiences agency Because has announced the appointment of a new creative director in Natasha Blevins. The first strategic appointment of new UK chief executive Graham Wall, she brings two decades of creative experience at integrated agencies, most recently working at FCB Inferno where she creatively led the Nivea portfolio for Beiersdorf and worked across Sky and Microsoft.

McCann Birmingham

Leif Johnson has joined McCann Birmingham as video director.

Having previously worked at McCann London and JWT, Johnson brings over 16 years of experience with him to the role.

Now

Now has bolstered its senior creative team with Creature's Laura Muse joining as associate creative director and Adam&Eve/DDB duo Steph Ellis and Rory Hall also joining.

As well as the three creative hires, Nicki Kythereotis joins as design lead from Fallon.

We Are Social

Murray Gordon has been appointed to take on the role of client partner at We Are Social.

Joining from AnalogFolk, where he held the role of client partner heading up the BT and Booking.com accounts, Gordon will oversee We Are Social accounts including Google.

Merkle

Merkle has hired Guy Howland to take on the newly created role of EMEA creative director and Sarah Painter as SEO director.

Howland joins from GForces and will be responsible for growing the creative department while Painter joins from Merkle’s SEO team in the US.

The Radio Academy

Yvonna Thompson has been appointed as chair of The Radio Academy.

Brave Bison

Social video company Brave Bison has selected former AOL Platforms commercial director Caroline Troman as Asia Pacific general manager.

Troman will lead the company’s Asia Pacific growth from its Singapore office, where it has grown its clients to include Johnson & Johnson, All Nippon Airways and P&G premium skincare brand SKII.

KPMG

KPMG Australia has hired former Zenith managing director Karen Halligan to lead the consultancy's new Media Value Advisory practice.

The new service will form part of KPMG's Customer, Brand and Marketing Advisory business, with Halligan tasked with helping clients navigate the changes and challenges in the media, publishing and advertising industries.

Halligan brings over 20 years experience in media buying, strategy, and optimisation including roles at Zenith, Mediacom, Universal McCann, Coca-Cola and Southern Cross Austereo.

MediaCom China

MediaCom has appointed Nedra Chian as chief operating officer of the China business. Chian, who will also join the agency's executive committee, will be tasked with driving growth and developing talent, structures and resources. She brings 16 years of agency experience in GroupM China, in both Shanghai and Beijing, to the role.

MediaCom has also promoted Yoyo Zhao to managing director of MediaCom Beijing. Zhao will be responsible for developing the Beijing office business and services for clients including working with key clients FAW-VW, Audi, Dell, Air China, Bank of China, Didi, and GSK. Zhao will join MediaCom's executive committee and report to Rupert McPetrie, chief executive officer, MediaCom China.

DDB Group Melbourne

DDB Group Melbourne has appointed Karen Dwyer as chief strategy officer. She joins Group managing director Kate Sterling and executive creative director Stuart Turner on the newly formed leadership team.

Dwyer will be responsible for leading a group of brand, experience, content, social, data and CRM strategists across DDB, Track and Mango, as well as centralising the Group's strategic offering to enable collaboration on projects. Dwyer has previously held roles at BBDO and RGA New York.

AnalogFolk

Digital agency AnalogFolk has appointed Fredrik Dahlberg as creative director. Dahlberg will be responsible for developing the agency’s copy division as well as bolstering the agency’s creative and conceptual capabilities. He joins from Hong Kong consultancy Triple Happiness prior to this he founded agencies A3 and RBK in Sweden.

Outbrain

The discovery platform has appointed Andrew Burke as managing director of APAC. Burke joins Outbrain from Sensis, where he managed both the Yellow Pages digital business and agency Found. He will lead Outbrain’s operations in the region and be responsible for driving the company’s relationships with publishers, agencies and brands.

Ayal Steiner has also been promoted into a newly created role as vice president of international revenue.

Y&R Thailand

Y&R has appointed Dr. Ketchayong Skowratananont, as chief executive officer for Y&R Thailand. He takes over agency leadership from Sanjay Bhasin, who left the company in 2017.

Skowratananont was most recently the chief commercial officer of Thai Smile Airways, the subsidiary of Thai Airways, a role which he held for two years.

Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick has appointed former Under Armour senior global creative director Chris Ferguson as executive creative director. In his role, Ferguson will be responsible for shaping and executing creative engagement campaigns for a diverse range of client partners. He will lead a growing team of creatives in Washington DC, Baltimore and Dallas, and will work in close collaboration with the firm’s global creative collective.

Twentieth Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox has promoted Greg Drebin to an expanded role of executive vice president-worldwide marketing. In this role, Drebin’s been tasked with overseeing Fox Networks Group’s content distribution marketing and television distribution research arms.

Drebin will continue to oversee the worldwide marketing, publicity and promotion of the studio’s series and films across all international linear channels.

TBWA/Chiat/Day New York

TBWA\Chiat\Day New York has completed a shake-up of its creative team – led by the appointment of Amy Ferguson and Julia Neumann as executive creative directors from March 1.

The duo’s arrival dovetails with a host of internal promotions with the elevation of Walt Connelly and Evelyn Neil to the same position alongside the naming of Frannie Rhodes as executive director of creative operations.

McKinney

Jasmine Dadlani has been named director of strategy in the agency’s New York office.

Dadlani comes to McKinney after serving as senior vice president, director of brand planning at Cramer-Krasselt. She also served in the same role at Deutsch New York and brand planning director at Arnold Worldwide in Washington, DC.

AKQA

Resh Sidhu has returned to AKQA as creative director. Based at the NYC studio after two years at digital and visual effects company Framestore, Sidhu will join the AKQA New York leadership team.

Sidhu is one of the most respected names in Virtual Reality (VR). Over her career, she has held multiple creative positions and produced award-winning work acknowledged by Cannes Lions, Campaign Big, Clios, Design Week, FWA, One Show and Webby Awards. She was voted one of the World’s Most Creative Women in The Drum, earning her the title ‘Queen of VR’.

Rauxa

Full-service agency Rauxa announced today that it has appointed Autumn Berrang as its new senior vice president, account services.

Berrang, who is based in Rauxa’s New York office, has responsibility over several client teams including Frontpoint Home Security and new clients Bahlsen and Lansinoh Laboratories.

Media iQ

Media iQ has announced that Simon Tray, former chief financial officer of MediaCom, has joined the programmatic outfit, bringing to an end his 19-year term at the WPP outfit.

Tray had served at MediaCom since 1999 and has now taken up the reins as finance chief at Media iQ where he will be responsible for the company’s financial performance and reporting of business, as well as taking responsibility for future operational business planning plus commercial risk management.

Great Bowery Film

Global production company and artist management agency Great Bowery Film has added London and LA-based director Gerard de Thame to its roster of directors, artists, photographers, creative directors, designers and animators.

De Thame began his directorial career in his native England after graduating from Chelsea School of Art and winning the prestigious Rome Scholarship. Having directed more than 500 spots, he has won numerous awards for his work, including Cannes Gold Lions, Clios, D&ADs, and BTAA Best Commercial of the Year.

GMR Marketing

Global experiential agency GMR Marketing has promoted Tim Witmer to vice president of digital project management. Witmer joined GMR 10 years ago as the first digital project manager and has been a key member of the digital team since its inception.

In his new role Witmer will continue to oversee the digital project management team, have deeper involvement with client initiatives and lead the global support team for all digital activations.

McCann Health

The agency, part of McCann Worldgroup, has tapped Daniel Carucci, MD, MSc, PhD, to the new position of global medical director. He will be based in New York and New Jersey, working across the entire global McCann Health network.

Deutsch New York

Deutsch’s New York office has added Husani Oakley as its new senior vice president of technology, working across its roster of clients including AB InBev, PNC Bank, Siemens, and DraftKings.

He joined the agency after spending four years as co-founder of investment platform GoldBean, where he also served as chief technology officer, helping to build and direct the product, as well as assembling its engineering team.

New York Times

The New York Times Company has announced the appointment of Kathleen Diamantakis as managing director of strategy for its content studio, T Brand.

Diamantakis will have responsibilities across T Brand Studio, as well as experience design agency Fake Love and influencer marketing agency HelloSociety, both of which were acquired by The Times in 2016.

Tool

Creative production partner Tool of North America has signed Christian Bevilacqua as a new director. At Tool, Bevilacqua will use his versatile filmmaking skills and visual storytelling techniques to work alongside the Tool team to design and create work for their clients. Bevilacqua joins Tool from Anonymous, bringing over 12 years of experience and talent as a director.

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