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 biggest moves in adland this week.
Tara Ford departs DDB for The Monkeys
DDB Sydney's Tara Ford joins The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive, as chief creative officer. Her appointment comes following the departure of Justin Drape, co-founder and group chief creative officer at The Monkeys. She joins the agency from DDB Sydney where she produced award winning work across a range of blue chip clients including Westpac, Volkswagen and McDonalds. Ford joined DDB Sydney in 2017 as executive creative director from TBWA before being promoted in 2019 as chief creative officer.
Ex-Merkle boss to advise Fast-Trak
Fast-Track has bolstered its advisory team in Australian and New Zealand with its first senior appointment, securing Rebecca Tos as senior advisor. Her role is new for the Australian and New Zealand market as Fast-Track expands its Asian ventures locally. Tos will be working closely with the Fast-Track team of Partners and Advisors to accelerate the growth of its existing ventures in Australia, while also advising on the go-to-market strategy of their new technology venture, set to launch in Q2 of 2021. Tos brings over 20 years of experience launching and leading innovative offerings in the Australian marketplace. She was previously managing director of Merkle, CEO of Columbus and general manager of Reprise.
New leader leadership team for IMAA
Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA) announced its leadership team for 2021 after a successful launch in February 2020. The team: Angela Smith, managing director, MediaSmiths (NSW); Steve Fagan, director, Media Republic (Victoria); Jacquie Alley, chief operating officer, The Media Store (NSW); Tom Frazer, co-founder and managing partner, Half Dome (Victoria); Phil McDonald, partner and managing director, BCM Group (Queensland); and Ant Colreavy, chairman, Sandbox Media (NSW).
Ex-VCCP and McCann exec acquires stake in Wired
David Kennedy-Cosgrove, former managing partner of VCCP and group head at McCann, has become an investor and managing partner at independent The Wired Agency. He adds global experience to the agency having worked at Fallon, Havas London and BBDO’s AMV Weapon7 and the BBC, across leading brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Bacardi, Grey Goose, Dulux, Durex, Veet and V05. His more recent Australian experience includes working with ING, Coke, Fitness First, HiPages and Microsoft.
Landor & Fitch reveals post-merger leadership team
WPP's recently merged brand consultancy Landor & Fitch has revealed its new leadership team with Trish Folan promoted to the position of general manager Sydney. Folan will work alongside the leadership team of Sam Wall and Jessica Murphy, plus Daye Moffit who takes on a wider regional strategy role. Folan was most recently executive director client service with Landor Australia, having held senior client service roles in both Sydney and London. The team will be strengthened by new APAC appointments under the leadership APAC president Jonathan Cummings including Cally Williams as MD, APAC clients, Janice Siu, MD APAC business development and Mark D’Costa, MD business innovation.
Pivotus announces senior appointments
Independent media agency Pivotus has announced four senior appointments as the business expands its national footprint. Audrey Fitte-Umark, who joined Pivotus in 2019, has been promoted from account director to strategy director working across the entire agency’s key clients. Anjan Ramesh has been appointed head of trading. He was previously programmatic lead at InMobi and has also worked with eBay, Foxtel and AOL. Ruther Chan joins Pivotus as account director in Melbourne, replacing Fitte-Umark, after spending four and a half years with the Dentsu Aegis Network where he was senior investment manager for DentsuX. Pivotus has also appointed Divya Singh from Reprise Adelaide to become performance manager, leading search and paid social for Pivotus’ largest client portfolio and the agency is currently recruiting for a performance executive to support Singh.
Former Nine CFO joins dentsu
Paul Koppelman, who left Nine last year for personal reasons, has resurfaced as dentsu's CFO for Australia and New Zealand. He has held chief financial officer roles with Aconex, Medibank, AXA and BHP. Koppelman replaces Jerome Whelan, who has moved into a regional finance role to support dentsu’s APAC business and operations teams.
Apparent makes promotions
Full service independent agency Apparent has strengthened its creative team with the promotions of Michelle Turchini as its first executive creative director and Louise Acret to creative director. Turchini joined Apparent four years ago and was promoted to creative director in 2018 from the role as creative group head of design and UX. With local and international experience, her past roles span from large agencies working at JWT and Havas in Hong Kong to San Francisco start-ups. Louise Acret has been appointed creative director after two years with Apparent. A creative content and strategy specialist, Acret has worked at specialist agencies across Sydney including Present Company, Adhesive and 303 MullenLowe.
Integral Ad Science expands in ANZ
Digital ad verification firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) has has named Jessica Miles as country manager, Brandon Coleman as commercial lead and Chanel Barta as head of customer success in Australia and New Zealand. Miles joined IAS in 2017 as the sales director of Australia and New Zealand. In her new role as country manager ANZ, she will lead the regional business. Coleman has joined IAS as the commercial lead for ANZ where he will be responsible for shaping and spearheading the local business development strategy. Prior to IAS, he was operations manager and national advertising product specialist at News Corp. Barta, who joined IAS in 2015, will now take on the role of head of customer success ANZ and lead a team driving efficiency and outcomes for buy-side and sell-side partners. She previously held roles in technical client services.
Rock Posters hires national sales director
Independent street poster network Rock Posters has appointed David Cross as national sales director. Cross previously worked at SCA Melbourne and our OurDeal. Before that he spent 11 years with the Nine Network. He began his media career on the planning and buying side with Mediacom and DDB Needham in Melbourne.
UnLtd's new GM in WA
Kristy Mansfield has been appointed general manager WA of social purpose organisation UnLtd. Mansfield joins from Southern Cross Austereo where she has been heading the agency sales team for the last eight years. UnLtd’s current general manager WA, Carol Morris, will be moving to a board role. She is joined by two new directors – Simone Woodward, manager of marketing and communications at RAC, and Jim Groves, managing director Perth at Carat.
Connecting Plots' two new hires
Connecting Plots has kicked off 2021 by welcoming two new senior hires following a period of significant growth for the creative communications agency. Chris Johnson has been appointed to the role of creative director, while Gemma Geraint joins the agency as group account director. Johnson joins from TBWA Sydney and brings over 20 years of experience working in Australian creative agencies. Geraint brings with her more than 15 years of experience working in both digital and creative agencies. Most recently, she led the creative content and studio team at QANTAS.
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