Foxtel's top marketer Mark Buckman to exit
Foxtel's most senior marketer Mark Buckman will leave the pay TV company in December. Foxtel confirmed the move to AdNews and clarified that he is indeed in an ongoing permanent role, as opposed to being brought on for Foxtel's transformation only. Buckman, who is Foxtel's managing director customer and retail, will become the second senior executive to exit the business after managing director of content aggregation Deanne Weir leaves at the this month. It's not yet known where he is going. Read more here.
IAG restructure sees marketing boss Merrick move on
IAG is restructuring its marketing department to allow for a new brand strategy across the business. As a result, Jane Merrick, general manager of marketing at IAG, has exited the insurance firm after eight years. CMO Brent Smart, who took on the role in February, has put in place the major overhaul of the marketing strategy and structure designed to "set it up for success with future marketing initiatives". AdNews understands that the broader marketing team was required to reapply for roles within the new structure and it has led to a number of redundancies. Read more here.
Blue 449 COO exits after 10 years
After a decade in business, Match Media co-founder-turned Blue 449 COO James Simmons will leave his role at the agency and return to the UK. In 2007 Simmons co-founded Match Dialogue with John Preston before it merged with Match Integration (launched in 2003) to form Match Media, and so began CEO Preston and Simmons' partnership. Then in June 2015, the Publicis Groupe acquired Match Media which rebranded to Blue 449 in January this year. Read more here.
303 MullenLowe lures Tom Rankin to head media division
303 MullenLowe Mediahub has appointed former Starcom exec Tom Rankin as GM of media. Rankin has held roles at UM and Ikon Communications, prior to spending six months at Starcom. His appointment comes as 303 MullenLowe looks to bolster its media offering, announcing its alignment with the global MullenLowe Mediahub network earlier this year as well as bringing on former Initiative CEO Andrew Livingston into the business.
eHarmony marketing director departs for Woolworths
eHarmony top marketer Nicole McInnes is leaving the business after just over a year to take up a role at Woolworths. She is joining in the newly created role head of marketing for Woolworth's digital division, WooliesX. McInnes joined eHarmony in 2016 from Pandora. In her short time at eHarmony, she appointed a new media agency in OMD and creative agency with The Glue Society, launching a new brand campaign. McInnes tells AdNews she is excited about the prospect of working on an Australian brand. She starts her new position in October.
Nine's digital boss Alex Parsons exits after 11 years
Nine's chief digital officer Alex Parsons is leaving the business after more than a decade at the network, including the past three years leading Nine's digital operations. In a statement, Parsons said he was leaving to pursue a new challenge after leading the transformation from the Mi9 joint venture with Microsoft to a standalone digital business, Nine Digital. Instead of seeking a new CDO, some of Nine's key executives will take on additional responsibilities and new reporting lines. Parsons will leave Nine at the end of the month. Read more here.
Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne hires BWM’s Simon Bagnasco
Former BWM Dentsu creative Simon Bagnasco has joined Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne as executive creative director. He had been at the agency for just under 18 months. News of his departure came at the same time former BWM MD Mark Watkin exited the agency. Bagnasco has previously held creative roles at agencies including DDB, Y&R, Publicis Mojo and Clemenger BBDO and he has won awards at major international shows including Cannes, D&AD, One Show and the Clio Awards. Read more here.
The Hallway boosts Melbourne with CX boss
Independent agency The Hallway has bolstered its growing Melbourne team with the appointment of three senior execs to handle its business in Victoria. The three senior appointments are all female, showing there is senior female talent out there. Hannah Sturrock, formerly chief of operations, has been promoted to group head. She will split her time between the Sydney and Melbourne offices. Wilmari Pienaar joins the agency as CX director from AJF Partnership, where she was director of CRM and digital. Tisha Lazaro has also joined The Hallway as senior art director. She has previously been in creative roles at Ted Horton’s Big Red and M&C Saatchi. Read more here.
PublicisQ lifts digital capabilities
Queensland-based creative agency PublicisQ has strengthened its digital and client leadership capabilities with the addition of two senior executives who have both joined the agency’s leadership team. The agency has hired Jane Young as client services director and Alexandra Sundqvist as digital projects director. Young is formerly general manager of Ogilvy Brisbane and has had a 15-year career working in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Sundqvist has more than 10 years’ experience in the digital industry, working across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
GumGum appoints Sarah Baskerville as Victorian sales director
Hybrid ad tech firm GumGum has appointed Sarah Baskerville as Victorian sales director to its senior leadership team. Sarah joins GumGum from Ansible where she spent two years as Melbourne mobile director. Her primary role was to be a digital transformation advocate responsible for educating key Australian marketers on the role of mobility for brands through the eyes of the consumer. She has also held roles at News Corp, Bauer, Pacific Magazines and Fairfax.
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