Take a look at the biggest industry moves of the week:
Bupa marketer John Moore exits for UK role
Marketing director at health and care company Bupa, John Moore, is set to depart the business in January. Moore will take up a newly-created leadership role at Bupa’s corporate headquarters in the UK and a selection process is underway to replace him. Moore’s new London-based role will aim to “accelerate and build Bupa customers’ digital experience, enabling Bupa to become a customer-first and digital leader globally”. He had been leading the ANZ marketing team for more than three years and in that time his team repositioned the brand in the market. Read more here.
Y&R chief creative officer Ben Coulson named as Paul Nagy’s successor
Clemenger BBDO Sydney has announced Ben Coulson as chief creative officer (CCO), succeeding Paul Nagy who recently resigned from the agency. Coulson joins Clemenger after 10 years at Y&R, most recently as CCO Australia and New Zealand. He is currently ranked in the top 10 chief creative officers in the world in the Won Report and has twice been named top five creative directors in the world at Cannes. Read more here.
MEC promotes Ian Edwards to Sydney MD
MEC has promoted Ian Edwards to the newly created role of Sydney managing director following significant growth over the past 12 months. Edwards has held several roles at MEC during his 13-year career and was most recently the agency’s national head of operations. He began as an intern at MEC London. He will look after the day-to-day operation of the Sydney office, a duty previously managed by MEC CEO James Hier. Edward's promotion will help free up more of Hier's time for rapidly growing offices across the country. Read more here.
R/GA top creative Gavin McLeod exits
One thing for sure is that Australia’s greatest creative minds aren’t ones to hold tight until after Christmas before vacating a job, as yet another well-known executive creative director (ECD) has left his spot. Gavin McLeod, who is a founding member of R/GA Sydney, is biding farewell to the business after four years. He is one of many big industry hitters to leave a top agency of late. Early in November DDB Melbourne’s award-winning chief creative officer, Darren Spiller, revealed he was exiting the agency after spending more than five years at the shop. Some 10 days later Clemenger BBDO Sydney ECD Paul Nagy handed in his notice, with Y&R chief creative officer Ben Coulson named as his successor. Read more here.
Starcom New York's Yvette Mayer takes reins as OMD Sydney MD
OMD has announced the appointment of Yvette Mayer to managing director, OMD Sydney. The annoucement follows the promotion of Aimee Buchanan to chief executive officer OMD Australia, in October. In her new position the Australian will lead the OMD Sydney office and be responsible for the agency’s output. She has also been appointed to the OMD Executive Team. Mayer joins OMD from her New York based position of EVP, group director at Starcom US, where she led the ESPN business, was head of digital for Mars Wrigley and was also a member of the Senior Leadership Council. Read more here.
Zenith director exits for SBS marketer role
Zenith group business director Uma Oldham has bid farewell to media agency land for a role at head of group marketing. Oldham has more than 15 years’ marketing experience across a range of sectors and before joining Zenith in 2011, she worked at Initiative. She has worked on award winning campaigns for a range of iconic Australian and global brands such as Qantas, XXXX, Drumstick, Tourism Northern Territory, SBS, 20th Century Fox and Heineken. Oldham has also been at Zenith for the last five years in strategic and business leadership roles. Oldham replaces Jo McAlister, who joined NBCUniversal Networks in July as marketing director for Australia and New Zealand. Read more here.
The Age editor-in-chief resigns amidst scandal
The Age editor-in-chief Mark Forbes has resigned following allegations of sexual harassment. In an email to staff Forbes says he failed to uphold the standards of behaviour expected in his position at Fairfax Media. Forbes was suspended two days after when the allegation of sexual harassment was made. An investigation is currently underway.
Lavender poaches from News Corp for data head
CX agency Lavender has poached Brian Sliman from News Corp to join as head of data. He was previously head of reporting, analytics and marketing automation at News Corp. Sliman has also held roles at Global Red, Carlson Marketing, Acxiom and Experian. He joins recently appointed head of experience design Eric Folger and strategy partner Nick Andrews in forming the core team of Lavender’s new consulting arm, Lavender Consult.
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