It's been a big week for media agency moves with shake-ups at Spark, Atomic 212, Ikon, Bohemia and more.
Atomic 212 CEO exits for UK
The CEO and co-founder of full-service media agency Atomic 212, Jason Dooris, has resigned from the business. His exit follows queries over the validity of some of the agency's awards entries, although the official statement from the agency doesn't refer to it. Dooris, who hails from the UK, led the agency with childhood friend and Atomic chief digital officer James Dixon and former Channel Ten boss Barry O'Brien. Read more here.
Spark promotes Lauren Small to Sydney GM
Spark Foundry Australia CEO Sue Squillace has promoted Lauren Small to the newly created role of Sydney general manager. Small will be responsible for leading Spark Foundry’s clients, staff and operations. Small was previously client service director at Spark and has 12 years of experience in the media industry, working in the UK at Mediavest, Starcom and Omnicom Media Group. She migrated to Australia in 2011 to join Mediacom and then Starcom before Spark. Read more here.
Bohemia bolsters Melbourne with media hire
Bohemia is bolstering its newly announced Melbourne office with the appointment of Vizeum’s former director of client services, Sam Westaway, to the role of media director. CEO of the M&C Saatchi-owned agency, Brett Dawson, said it was a critical appointment for the group.
Ikon appoints chair Lesley Edwards to national CEO
WPP AUNZ’s Ikon has appointed chair Lesley Edwards to national CEO, concluding a year-long agency leadership restructure. It is the first time the agency has had a national chief executive since James Greet left the business three years ago. Edwards, the founder of Ikon's Brisbane operation, has been with the business for six years and chair since June 2017. Read more here.
Bauer Media restructures digital team
Bauer Media has appointed the former editor of Weight Watchers magazine Fiona Baker to the newly created role of managing editor of Now To Love, as part of what the company describes as an ‘evolution’ of its digital business. Baker has previously worked within the digital team across The Australian Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day. She has also held senior digital roles at News Corp, including news editor of Kidspot and editor of Body and Soul. Bauer Media’s digital content director, Emily Kerr will move to New York, joining Bauer Media USA as digital content director. Kerr has been with the company for four and a half years, first joining as digital editor across the young women’s brands. Jenna Clarke, features editor at Elle has been promoted as managing editor of the digital luxury portfolio, and will now work across Elle, Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar.
DDB's Wendy Clark promoted to global role
DDB has promoted its North America boss Wendy Clark to global president and CEO of DDB Worldwide. Clark has led the US business for close to two years after joining from Coca-Cola where she was CMO. She was the driving force behind the group winning McDOnald’s US$820 million business and setting up a bespoke agency to run it. She was tasked with reviving the agency giant and Clark told AdNews on a recent trip to Australia that the decision to take the leap from arguably one of the most high−profile client−side gigs in the world to a similarly high−profile agency role was borne out of a reverence for advertising, according to Clark, and the legacy of DDB founder Bill Bernbach. Read more here.
Ben Maudsley joins Amplifi as head of commercial
After several years at ad tech firm Exponential, Ben Maudsley has left his role as managing director APAC and South Africa for a job media agency side, as head of commercial at Dentsu Aegis Network's investment unit Amplifi, AdNews can reveal. He will work alongside Amplifi’s chief commercial officer, Alex Pekish, and trading team. Maudsley joined the sub-organisation of Exponential, Tribal Fusion, in 2010 before moving to Exponential as country manager in 2010. After more than four years as GM, in 2014 he was promoted to the MD role. Melbourne-based Maudsley's hire follows several reshuffles at Amplifi. Adrian Roeling was appointed president of Amplifi in November, with other recent senior appointments including Alex Pekish’s promotion to chief commercial officer and Ashley Earnshaw’s appointment to chief investment officer.
Yahoo7's Paul Bates joins REA
Yahoo7 national agency sales director Paul Bates has joined REA Group as the company’s national sales director for the business' media and content arm. Bates joins the company after almost three years with Yahoo7. He has also held roles at Fairfax and Pacific Magazines. Last year, Bates spoke to AdNews about changing the perceptions of Yahoo7 - read more here.
More movement at Bauer
Jayne Ferguson, Bauer Media’s general manager of women’s lifestyle and entertainment, is set to leave the company. CEO Paul Dykzeul, who expanded his remit to the Australian business last year, formerly the CEO of Bauer NZ, will absorb the entertainment and lifestyle portfolio to his remit. Ferguson was publisher of some of Bauer’s biggest brands including TV Week, Take 5, NW and OK!, before being promoted to the general manager role in 2016. She took on the responsibility of Women’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly. There has been a lot of movement within Bauer, including several exec team shake-ups and magazine closures. Read more here.
Cummins&Partners new creative team
Hot on the heels of the announcement of ex-Leo's Sarah McGregor as creative director, Cummins&Partners has announced its newly formed creative leadership panel. The new leadership sees Wendy Mace, Heath Collins, Chris Ellis, Luke Wallis and Sarah McGregor at the helm as creative directors with Trent Hendrick and Adam Slater promoted to associate CDs. Adam Slater and Trent Hendrick have also been promoted to become associate creative directors. The creative leadership restructure comes one year after global chief strategy director Adam Ferrier and joint ECDs Jim Ingram and Ben Couzen left the agency to launch a new agency, Thinkerbell.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.