People on the Move, including Warner Bros, Essence and Group Black

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Brands

VoucherCodes, the UK’s leading discount site, today announced the appointment of Maureen McDonagh as its new managing director. She replaces Harriet Matheson, who leaves the company to pursue new opportunities.

Agencies

McCann Worldgroup has announced that Cynthia ‘Cindy’ Augustine has been named global chief talent officer. Augustine steps into the role currently held by Marjan Panah, who is shifting into another opportunity. Augustine has previously served in HR and talent leadership roles for global companies that include Scholastic, Time Warner and The New York Times.

Born Social has announced Jenni Evans as its senior new business manager. Evans joins the agency from the Accenture-owned ad agency Karmarama where she held the role of new business and marketing manager, helping the agency secure global brands including Lidl, Nando’s, Halfords, NCS, Arla Foods, Just Eat and Confused.com. Prior to joining Born Social, she held positions at Sue Ryder and Creative Brief.

Independent advertising agency St Luke’s has announced the appointment of senior creative team Phillip Meyler and Darren Keff. The highly-awarded pair have worked with St Luke’s on a freelance basis to date, and have now joined permanently as part of the creative department.

Bountiful Cow, the strategy-led communications and media agency, has appointed Adam Foley as its new chief executive. Foley, who will begin his new position at the start of 2022, joins from the Guardian News & Media Group, where he spent six years and became director of advertising in 2020. Prior to The Guardian, Foley spent twelve years at Starcom MediaVest where he was managing partner of strategy.

R/GA has promoted Cara Watson to vice-president, managing director of R/GA’s California office. She will help R/GA further innovative experiences for R/GA clients using a human-centered approach.

Group Black – a media collective aimed at deepening the pipeline of Black-owned media companies – has announced the expansion of its senior leadership. Appointments include Mark Larkin as chief operating officer, Marchelle Johnson Wright as chief people officer, Susan Kilkenny as senior vice-president of partnerships and Ryan Robertson as head of growth.

DDB Group Aotearoa NZ has announced the appointment of creative leader Matty Burton as its first group chief creative officer. In the newly-created role, Burton will bring his extensive local and international experience to drive the creative output across the group’s four agencies – DDB, TRACK, Tribal and Mango.

Ogury, a global technology leader in mobile brand advertising, is happy to announce the appointment of Blandine Kouyaté as chief people officer. In her role, Kouyaté will be responsible for bringing the voice of Ogury’s people to the table and focus on creating the best employee experience.

FleishmanHillard UK announced that Rob Mayhew has been hired as the head of influence and retail in the London office, after a short period of consulting across several flagship clients, including Unilever and Fitbit.

The Leith agency is expanding its health team with two new hires. John McPartland joins from the Havas Lynx Group, taking on the role of creative director for all health clients at Leith. Camilla Rossi joins Leith as group account director from McCann Health London, with over a decade of experience in healthcare advertising.

Media

Warner Bros has named Sally De St Croix as senior vice-president leading its Harry Potter Global Franchise Development team, which is responsible for all business strategy, marketing and development of the global Wizarding World franchise. De St Croix will be based in London and report to both Pam Lifford, president, WarnerMedia Global Brands & Experiences, and Tom Ascheim, president, Warner Bros Global Kids, Young Adults & Classics.

Pat Crowley has been named the first chief executive officer of Essence in Australia, as AKQA Media becomes part of the Essence network. The transition will happen over the coming months and be effective from Jan 1 2022. The combined agency will operate as Essence with 250 people across three offices in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Meanwhile in the US, GroupM’s Essence today announced that Traci E Dinkins is joining the agency as the new head of media for North America, a newly-created role. She comes to Essence from Omnicom’s PHD Media, where she was one of the agency’s chief client officers. She previously served in leadership roles at Carat USA and GroupM’s Mindshare and MEC.