It's hard to keep up with all the latest moves across media, marketing and advertising, so we've made a list. Check out the some of the biggest moves this week.
UM Sydney appoints new boss
UM has appointed Ben McCallum as managing director for its Sydney office. McCallum has previously held senior leadership roles at Mediacom for nearly five years, most recently as managing director. He has also worked as group investment director at ZenithOptimedia, moving to Australia from the UK to take up the role in early 2015.
Samsung Ads bolsters local team
Samsung Ads Australia has made new appointments across marketing, advertising partnerships and insights and analytics. Brigitte Slattery joins as head of strategic marketing APAC from NBCUniversal where she was the director, marketing and digital APAC. Luke Carmichael joins as head of advertiser partnerships and will oversee brand partnerships and client solutions. Also joining the team is Qadeer Ahmed who will head up insights and analytics to bolster the data side of the business. Qadeer’s role will focus on expanding the data capabilities of the Samsung Ads Australia platform for advertisers.
CHEP names new creative directors
CHE Proximity has made multiple promotions across its Sydney creative department with Cass Jam and Fee Millist now the creative directors. The duo have been together since teaming up at the agency a year and a half ago and have worked on campaigns for NRMA, Samsung, 7-Eleven, and eBay.
GroupM nab’s Initiative's head of HR
GroupM has appointed Scott Laird, the head of HR at Initiative, as chief people officer. Laird will lead the people and culture practice at GroupM working closely with the HR leads in Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker and Essence. He replaces Cindy Grass who is stepping down in November to pursue new opportunities.
The Works appoints former MercerBell boss
The Works has appointed former MercerBell boss Julie Dormand as managing partner on a contract basis. Dormand will lead the agency operations, people and key clients. She will also drive business plan initiatives for 2022 as she joins on maternity cover with people and operations general manager Jasmine Lansdell and managing partner Kristie Thistelthwaite set to go on maternity leave in December.
Dentsu’s management shakeup
Dentsu has made widespread changes to its senior management and board structure to lead the global advertising group to “the next phase of growth”. President and CEO Toshihiro Yamamoto retires after five years to be replaced by Hiroshi Igarashi, the current executive officer of Dentsu Japan Network. New York-based Tim Andree sheds his executive role and becomes non-executive chairman of Dentsu Group Inc effective March.
BMF appoints two creative teams
BMF is building on its creative department with the appointment of Josie Fox and Harry Stanford, joining as a senior creative team, alongside Erica Mallett and Angel McMullan as the newest junior creative team. For more than 10 years Fox and Stanford have worked at some of the best agencies across Australia and in London. Mallett and McMullan join BMF as a new junior creative pairing.
OMD Australia appoints co-CEOs
OMD Australia has revealed a new structure with the internal promotion to CEO of two senior executives, managing director Laura Nice and chief digital officer Sian Whitnall. The duo take overall responsibility for OMD assets nationally, leading a workforce of more than 600. They fill the hole left by Aimee Buchanan who in October became the new CEO of WPP's GroupM for Australia and New Zealand.
Ogilvy strengthens Melbourne creative and accounts
Ogilvy has made several senior promotions and new hires to its Melbourne office following a period of growth. Ogilvy veteran of 20 years’ Lenna Boland is now group creative director and her creative partner Ryan Clayton creative director. Creative directors Sharon Condy and Josh Murrell have also been promoted to group creative directors. Andrew Vohmann moves into an experience design lead role, after four years as senior digital designer. Senior creative team John Pantzopoulos and Stephen Sheldon have joined Ogilvy from CHE Proximity. In account service, senior account director Bianca Kerr has been promoted to group account director while Jenny McLarney has been promoted to senior account director and Cherry Lin moves into a senior account manager position. New arrivals at the accounts team include Kirstie Ly, Kim Thompson and Raj Thind, joining Ogilvy Australia’s Melbourne team as account directors.
Clemenger Group names new head of people and culture
Clemenger Group has appointed Raj Tapper as its new head of people and culture. Tapper’s most recent role was people and culture general manager at Cricket Australia. In her first month, Tapper has already spearheaded Clemenger Group’s new approach to flexibility which is centered around employees having choice, control and maximising opportunities.
Initiative replaces chief people officer
Initiative has appointed Erin Jakubans, a former head of HR at Baker McKenzie in Dubai, as its new chief people officer. Her appointment follows the departure of Scott Laird who joined Group in the same role. Jakubans has held senior roles at GroupM and Omnicom Media Group.
Shane Geffen is HERO's new Melbourne ECD
HERO Melbourne has appointed the multi-award winning Shane Geffen as executive creative director. His career spans two continents and four cities, at agencies including Ogilvy Johannesburg, DDB Sydney, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and most recently VMLY&R.
Bain & Company brings in Ben Shepherd
Ben Shepherd has moved to global consultancy Bain & Company as a vice president. Shepherd left Thinkerbell in June after less than a year as general manager of media. He joined the Melbourne agency in July last year after departing CHE Proximity after a year as chief media officer. He has also previously worked at PwC Australia and OMD.
Freeview Australia names general manager
Freeview Australia has named Dean Dezius as its new general manager. Dezius is a former vice president of Fox Networks Group for the Asia Pacific. He brings leadership, strategy, brand and digital skills from his time with multiple media organisations including Fox International and Foxtel. He replaces interim general manager Karim Yousfi who has steered the operations of Freeview over the past 18 months.
A run of hiring at Sandbox Media
Sandbox Media continues to build out its digital expertise. Ashleigh James has joined as Programmatic Solutions Lead, after five years in various roles at Dentsu including programmatic buying for Woolworths, Big Red Group and George Weston Foods. James Sparkes Head of Digital and Strategy at Sandbox: “We’re scaling up a number of resources internally at Sandbox; across tech stacks, partners and most importantly our people." Kath Colreavy has also been promoted to Account Director. Paige Wiseman has been hired as Account Coordinator and Yvette Willis as Senior Digital Account Manager.
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