Anthony Gregorio named Saatchi & Saatchi CEO
Former Havas boss Anthony Gregorio has joined Saatchi & Saatchi as CEO as Michael Rebelo shifts focus to his Publicis Communications CEO position. Gregorio spent nearly eight years at Havas and left the business in October 2017 when Host and Havas merged to become one agency. See full story here.
Publicis Groupe restructures leadership team
Publicis Groupe has formed a new leadership team to strengthen and accelerate the Groupe’s capabilities at a national level across Australia and New Zealand. The Groupe Leadership Team (GLT) includes Michael Rebelo, who was appointed to Publicis Communications ANZ CEO last year, Publicis Media ANZ CEO Matt James, group VP Marcos Kurowski, Pauly Grant, who steps up to chief talent officer from Publicis Sapient MD along with Henri Raymond, in the new role of chief financial officer. See full story here.
Seven promotes Natalie Harvey to succeed sales boss Adam Elliott
Seven West Media has promoted Natalie Harvey to network director of sales, succeeding Adam Elliott. She will begin her new role in May as Elliott departs to pursue his own business venture. See full story here.
Matt Eastwood exits JWT as it cuts global chief creative officer role
Matt Eastwood is exiting WPP as J. Walter Thompson axes the worldwide chief creative officer role. Eastwood, an Aussie expat, has held the position of worldwide chief creative officer since 2014. He cut his teeth in Sydney and Melbourne agencies, including DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi, before heading overseas. See full story here.
BMF strengthens creative department
With more than 10 years’ experience working in Sydney, New Zealand, Hong Kong and most recently Copenhagen, where she was associate creative director at VICE Scandinavia, senior art director Elizabeth Commandeur has joined BMF. Her work has been awarded in Cannes, D&AD, the Webbys, Spikes, ONE Show and NYFestivals. In internal moves, BMF’s creative James Sexton has been promoted to senior copywriter. He moved to BMF in 2015 and his recent work for Football Federation Australia ‘You’ve Gotta Have a Team’ and Sportsbet ‘Putting the ’Roid in Android’ with Ben Johnson, has been awarded at the ONE Show, Cannes, D&AD, Clios, Spikes and LIA, amongst others.BMF has also created a new role for Emily Field who, after starting at BMF in the account management team in late 2011 and then spending four years in planning, has been promoted into a hybrid strategist and creative role. She will now be splitting her time between the Planning and Creative departments.
RhythmOne reveals Adam Furness replacement
Ad tech company RhythmOne has promoted Luke Bussell to managing director ANZ. Adam Furness previously held the MD APAC role before moving to Impact Radius (which rebraded this week to Impact). Bussell joined RadiumOne (now RhythmOne) in 2016 and has more than 18 years of experience in advertising and media across digital, radio, publishing, content and TV. He has held leadership roles in sales, strategy, cross-platform and business development at Southern Cross Austereo, Brand New Media and in the UK.
Domain builds out team
Domain has appointed Tony Sutton as executive director of residential sales and has promoted Jon McConkey to senior sales director NSW and ACT. Sutton was the founding marketing director of Ireland’s first property portal MyHome.ie, sales and marketing director at Truvo Ltd, head of sales at REA Group and head of partner channels at MYOB. He takes responsibility for leading the Residential State Sales Directors. He will be based in the Sydney office and starts on 9 April. McConkey joined Domain in 2007 as an account manager and moved up the ranks to become a sales director. He starts in his new role immediately and will report to Sutton – who will report to Domain’s chief sales officer Tom Ainsworth.
APN Outdoor appoints Telstra exec as strategy and innovation chief
APN Outdoor Group Limited has appointed a Telstra product and innovation leader, Jeremy Howe, to help drive strategy and innovation for the outdoor company. Howe joins APN Outdoor as chief strategy and innovation officer and becomes the third major senior appointment under new boss James Warburton's reign, following the recent additions of Philip Knox as CFO and Charlotte Valente as head of marketing. See full story here.
Aussie Travis Johnson joins Dentsu New York
Former Ansible global president Travis Johnson has resurfaced at Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) several months after exiting the IPG Mediabrands' New York agency. He takes on the new role of president of commerce at the network, reporting to CEO Nick Brien. See full story here.
WhiteGrey MD departs
Another WPP exec is exiting the group with WhiteGrey managing director Andrew Davenport announcing his departure. This is third big exit from the the agency this year, following the departure of joint-CEO Paul Worboys and Miles Joyce. The CEOs have been replaced by M&C Saatchi’s managing partner Lee Simpson. There has been a lot of movement within WPP in the last six weeks, with redundancies at JWT, the exit of Y&R CEO Phil McDonald and a restructure of Ogilvy's creative teams.
Phillip Thomas named as Cannes Lion chairman
The owner of Cannes Lions, Ascential plc, has appointed Philip Thomas chairman of the festival of creativity, replacing the outgoing Terry Savage, who leaves the position after this year’s festival in June. Thomas is currently CEO of Ascential Events, with previous experience including CEO of Cannes Lions and its associated festivals for ten years. Ascential plc CEO Duncan Painter said Thomas was the obvious choice to step into the role, citing his longstanding knowledge of the brand and industry as key attributes. Cannes overhauled its award ceremony this year. Read more here.
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