Check out all the big moves across adland this week:
Nicole Sheffield resigns from News Corp
Nicole Sheffield has today resigned from News Corp after six years at the company. AdNews understands an internal power struggle was one of the reasons behind Sheffield’s exit, believed to be between her and CCO of publishing Damian Eales. News Corp denies any rift between the two powerhouses. Her exit has been rumoured for several weeks but staff were only informed today. Read more here.
MediaCom promotes Willie Pang to CEO
MediaCom has promoted chief operating officer Willie Pang to CEO, succeeding current boss Sean Seamer on 1 March, AdNews can reveal. Pang, who is highly respected in media circles, was promoted to COO and Melbourne lead last June and will remain in the Victorian capital in his new role. He will report to GroupM chief executive office Mark Lollback. Read more here.
SCA social media director flicks over to Channel Nine
SCA director of social media Chris Ledlin is joining Nine as head of content strategy and commercialisation. The AdNews Young Gun will report to group content strategy director Lizzie Young from mid-March. He will be responsible for the execution of Nine's content distribution strategy across its network assets. Read more here.
Dentsu X reveals top iSelect group exec as new national MD
Angela Tangas has been appointed national managing director of Dentsu X, replacing Adrian Roeling. Dentsu Mitchell rebranded to Dentsu X in November last year in push to be 'experience-focused' and to align the business with sister agencies around the world. This meant it dropped former owner Harold Mitchell's surname from the agency he founded 41 years ago, and four years after he sold the business to the Aegis Group. Read more here.
CEO of Unlockd steps down amid mental health battle
CEO of Unlockd Matt Berriman is stepping aside as boss of the mobile tech company to focus on his personal health and mental wellbeing. Effective immediately chief operating officer Jane Martino takes over as CEO while Berriman takes a role as executive director, focusing on major shareholder relations, overall strategic direction and corporate development. In a post on online publishing platform Medium, titled 'An open letter: My mental health battle and why I’m stepping aside', Berriman admitted that his journey to success has not been an easy. Read more here.
Ten's Sunita Gloster reappears at PwC's CMO hub
Sunita Gloster, the former AANA CEO and Ten commercial strategy lead, has resurfaced at PwC. Gloster, who left Ten after just three months at the tail end of 2017, has taken on a full time post as part of PwC’s CMO Advisory practice and starts the role today. When the advisory board was launched a year ago, Gloster was part of the committee of industry advisors, along with the likes of Mark Buckman, who was then at Foxtel. Read more here.
CHE Proximity's Ant White promoted to chief creative officer
CHE Proximity ECD Ant White has been promoted to chief creative officer at the agency, following a successful 2017 for the business. White returned to Australia in 2016 to join CHE Proximity after spending several years in New York, working at Droga5, US creative agency StrawberryFrog and as a content lead for marketing consultancy Co:Collective. During his tenure at CHE Proximity, the agency has risen up the ranks to become one of the most awarded Australia creative agencies, landing the third spot on AdNews Top Agency Rankings for 2017. Read more here.
Pacific Magazines reveals new commercial director
Pacific Magazines has promoted Nicole Bence as commercial director, following the departure of Prue Cox last year. Bence joined Pacific Magazines from Nova in 2016 as commercial solutions and strategy director when the business restructured its commercial team. Previously she held a range of senior sale roles at NewsLifeMedia. Read more here.
Rakuten Marketing MD swaps Sydney for London
MD of performance marketing company Rakuten Marketing, Anthony Capano, has been promoted to the position of managing director of Europe. Based in London, the expansion of his role is to cover high growth across the UK and continental European operations and marks “a significant strategic step” for the firm. Rakuten says in Britain alone, as much as 35% of transactions driven for brands by Rakuten Marketing are now taking place overseas. Capano, who has been championing performance and affiliate marketing Down Under, sits on the IAB Australia’s Affiliate Marketing Working Group and has been at the Japanese-owned firm since 2013. Capano will continue to report into MD international, Mark Haviland. Capano will continue as MD of Asia-Pacific until a local MD is named.
AppNexus hires former L’Oréal executive
Ad tech firm AppNexus has appointed former L’Oréal executive Antoinette Hamilton as vice president of diversity, inclusion and community experience. Hamilton will spearhead initiatives to promote a diverse and inclusive global community within AppNexus across ANZ, broaden the range of the company’s talent pipeline and drive thought leadership, employee training, and best corporate practices. She previously served as the assistant VP of diversity and inclusion at L’Oréal US, which she joined in 2004. Director of market development ANZ at AppNexus, Samuel Tan, says every member of the Australia and New Zealand team cares about advancing D&I both within its business and externally, and it hopes to make a difference in this market.
WhiteGrey CEO Paul Worboys exits
WhiteGrey joint-CEO Paul Worboys has exited the recently merged agency after eight years. WPP, which owns the agency, confirmed his departure, adding his exit was due to "family reasons". The agency will continue to be led by joint-CEO and founder of The White Agency, Miles Joyce. Worboys joined Grey Group Australia in 2010 initially as managing partner, then moved to CCO. Read more here.
Marcel Sydney adds creative clout
Marcel Sydney has announced a series of new hires to its creative department including freelance duo Scott Maggs and Alexander Haack, creatives Lucy Ochoapetit & Aisling (Ash) Dowling, Grace O’Brien & Andrea Sarcullo, and Head of Digital Design, Demian Hamann. They join the rest of the creative department lead by Wesley Hawes and Scott Huebscher, and creative chairman David Nobay.
IAG boots marketing muscle with three industry leaders
Australian insurer IAG has revealed its new senior marketing leaders, in a move to “boost its creative and strategic marketing capability”.The insurer, which includes NRMA Insurance and CGU Insurance in its stable of brands, has brought onboard local and global talent to fill the three new roles reporting to IAG CMO Brent Smart. Last month AdNews already revealed news of former Pandora marketer Sally Kiernan joining as NRMA Insurance marketing director. In addition to Kiernan, Zara Curtis joins as director of content. Curtis previously led content and creative teams for News Corp, Bauer Media and most recently FremantleMedia, where she was the GM commercial, digital and branded entertainment. Caroline Hugall also joins as group brand strategy director. Prior to IAG she was senior planner global brand strategy for food and beverage giant Mondelez in New York. Hugall has also held senior strategy positions at global creative agencies including Ogilvy, Naked, and Weiden + Kennedy.
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