Tuesday, January 20, 2015
- Wieden+Kennedy New York
Wieden+Kennedy New York hired David Stopforth as media director. Stopforth will be responsible for the overall management of media strategy and the development of communications planning efforts across the office. Stopforth will directly oversee clients like Nike's Brand Jordan, Equinox, Booking.com, ABC Entertainment and ABC News. Previously Stopforth was managing director of m/SIX, where he established and built its North American business. Prior to m/SIX, he was group strategy director at Zenith Media in New York, where he led the planning effort for JPMorgan Chase Card Services, H&M North America, Delta Air Lines and PUMA International AG. "The evolution of the landscape has renewed the need for proper integrated planning that includes media thinking alongside creative development," said Stopforth. "As an established full-service agency we are in a great position to help current and prospective clients solve all their problems in one place. I'm really excited to get started." - Saatchi & Saatchi New York
Saatchi & Saatchi New York hired Paul Bichler as executive creative director. He previously served as group creative director of Droga5. In addition, Luca Lorenzini and Luca Pannese, a creative team known as Luca & Luca, join the New York office from Saatchi & Saatchi's Milan office. While at Droga5, Bichler led creative for the American Express and Hennessy brands. Prior to that, he was executive creative director at JWT New York and creative director at Barlet Bogle Hegarty. Global creative directors Luca & Luca are most recently known for their work for Coordown, an Italian organization that champions the rights of people with Down Syndrome. The pair also created international work for Toyota, Lexus, T-Mobile, Renault, and Novartis. Luca & Luca have worked together since 2000, racking up numerous awards, including 17 Lions -- nine of which were Gold in the last three years. - Upshot
Upshot hired Hutson Kovanda as senior vice president, creative, a new position. Kovanda will lead key campaigns and work on numerous accounts across the agency's client roster. He will also broaden the senior creative leadership team over the coming months, and will be involved with the agency's new business opportunities. Kovanda will be based in Upshot's Chicago office and report to Brock Montgomery, executive vice president, creative services. Kovanda joins Upshot from Quench & Pavone, where he served as executive creative director. While there, he was responsible for Yuengling, Firefly Vodka and StarKist accounts. Prior to that, he worked at JWT, MARC USA and Wyse Advertising on brands like Sunoco, Rosewood Hotels, Turkey Hill Ice Cream, Rite Aid and 7-Eleven. "Hutson has passion for the idea and can develop and deliver award-winning work in multiple disciplines," said Montgomery. "It was an extensive search. His creativity, vision and experience stood out from everyone else -- way out." Upshot clients include New Balance, Procter & Gamble, Constellation Brands Beer Division, LiftMaster, Subway Restaurants and Kraft Foods. - McCann Worldgroup
McCann Worldgroup promoted Harjot Singh to regional strategy director for Europe and Craig Bagno to regional strategy director for North America. Both Bagno and Singh had previously led global strategy on major worldwide accounts, roles they will both retain. In addition, Sarah Watson joins McCann as a global strategy director and will work alongside Singh on the network's General Mills business. She was previously group planning director on Kraft and Pernod-Ricard brands at TBWA\Chiat\Day. Lastly, Commonwealth//McCann, McCann's global Chevrolet marketing communications unit, hired Jonathan Disegi as executive vice president, global director of strategy and research. Disegi was previously global planning director at JWT New York. Bagno most recently served as global strategy leader on Coca-Cola. He has also held the position of executive vice president, worldwide director at MRM//McCann. In his new role, he will be responsible for leadership of the North American strategic community across McCann Worldgroup and its partner agencies. He will continue as global strategic director of McCann Worldgroup's Coca-Cola business. - Arnold Worldwide
Arnold Worldwide named Jim Elliott as global chief creative officer, based in Boston. Elliott most recently served as chief creative officer of Y&R New York, where he worked on Land Rover, Dell, Campbell Soup Company and Virgin Atlantic, helping the agency win numerous awards, including Cannes Lions, CLIOs, AICP, ANDYs, One Show, ADC and D&AD. Elliott's global creative role marks a first for Arnold, which had previously organized creative leadership by office. "As a global micro-network, our team is increasingly working on client engagements across the Arnold footprint," said Pam Hamlin, global president of Arnold. "We are looking to unify our creative vision across all of our offices. Jim's strong global experience and outstanding creative credentials will raise the bar for all of us, acting as powerful fuel to drive our clients, our people, and the Arnold brand forward." Prior to Y&R New York, Elliott was group creative director/writer at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. While there, he helped create work for Hyundai, Haagen-Dazs, Denny's, HP, Yahoo!, NetFlix, and Sonic Drive-In.
- Discovery Communications
Discovery Communications hired Jean-Thierry Augustin as president, Sports Strategy & Development in a newly created position at Discovery Networks International, and Peter Hutton was named chief executive officer of Eurosport. - Sorenson Media
Sorenson Media hired Matt Timothy as chief commercial officer. Timothy will be responsible for business development, sales and marketing. He joins Sorenson from Vindico Group, where he served as president. - SQAD
SQAD hired Debra Meyer as chief revenue officer and head of sales. She will be responsible for sales and partnerships for all of SQAD's products, including media planning product Mediatools offered by Workhorse Software. - Conductor
Conductor hired Sheridan Orr as senior director of product marketing. - CrowdTwist
CrowdTwist hired Scott Matthews as chief executive officer. - GDC Marketing & Ideation
GDC Marketing & Ideation promoted Ashlyn Aschbacher to junior media buyer. For the past two years, Aschbacher has served as a coordinator for the agency’s media department. - Cutters
Cutters added Heather Richardson as a producer. Previously, she was a producer for Cosmo Street Editorial in New York. - BARKER
BARKER hired Carol Duncan as senior vice president, chief financial officer. Most recently she served as chief financial officer of Bodden Partners. - Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP
Law firm Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP announced that Doug Jacobs, most recently executive vice president and senior counsel of A+E Television Networks, has joined the firm as a partner in its New York office. - ClearSlide
ClearSlide named Raj Gossain as vice president of product. - RealMassive
RealMassive hired Mark Daniel as vice president of partner relations. - PlanSource
PlanSource hired Nancy Sansom as chief marketing officer. - Matter Unlimited
Matter Unlimited hired Alexandra Gordon as account managing director and Jake Kahana as creative director. - Industry Index
Industry Index hired Noah Elkin as chief product officer. Elkin joins Industry Index from eMarketer, where he was executive editor and chief evangelist. - Simulmedia
Simulmedia promoted Nick Donahue and Lauren Fry from account executives to senior account executives. - LuxHub
Havas Media Group launched LuxHub, a global consulting specialist label that will deliver media communications and marketing support for both luxury brands and luxury audiences. Headquartered in Milan, Isabelle Harvie-Watt, will oversee the strategic expansion. - zkipster
zkipster named Julian Jaeger as chief business officer. Jaeger recently served as director of partnerships for the Clinton Global Initiative. - Ovation TV
Mike Pons joined Ovation TV as senior vice president of content distribution. Scott Woodward was promoted to executive vice president, programming and production. - StrongView
StrongView hired Dave Frankland as chief strategy officer. - CelebTV
CelebTV hired Rachelle McCray as host of its digital series and annual network television specials. - Databricks
Kavitha Mariappan was named vice president of marketing at Databricks.
