People on the Move: James O'Reilly Is Sonic's New CMO

Sonic has named James O' Reilly senior VP-chief marketing officer. Most recently Mr. O' Reilly served as chief concept officer at Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, parent company of Einstein Bros. Bagels. During his tenure there he oversaw marketing, research & development, as well as information technology. Prior to his stint at Einstein, he spent 13 years with Yum Brands, working in multiple roles, including a post as CMO of KFC, along with international posts with KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Yum Restaurants International, and senior VP-U.S. marketing of Yum Brands. Mr. O' Reilly replaces Danielle Vona, who left the company in January. Gilt Group has hired Elizabeth Francis as CMO. Ms. Francis had held the same position at Intelligent Beauty, a company that develops online health and beauty businesses. She was also president of JustFabulous, a similar venture. Ms. Francis replaces Alexis Maybank, a founder of Gilt who had been acting as CMO for six months, since the departure of David Zucker in July. Howard Opinsky has joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies as exec VP and head of the Washington, D.C. office, effective March 1. He was most recently managing director-global corporate communications at JPMorgan Chase. Prior to joining JPMorgan, Mr. Opinsky spent 10 years as an exec VP at Weber Shandwick, where he led public affairs and corporate work for the firm's Washington, D.C. office, Powell Tate. At Weber, he counseled several Fortune 500 CEOs and other senior executives. He also worked with several major corporations to develop and maximize their corporate social-responsibility activities, with clients including Bank of America, Cisco Systems, Mattel and Microsoft and the governments of the United States and Colombia. In addition to his corporate work, Mr. Opinsky was national press secretary for Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign, a communication strategist at the National Senatorial Campaign Committee, and a media strategist and campaign operative for Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby and former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. Studio One Networks has appointed NBC Universal digital executive Devin C. Johnson as chief operating officer. He will be responsible for strategic and operational leadership for Studio One's partnerships with online publishers and brand marketers that want to reach audience verticals. He makes the move from Digital Works@NBCU (formerly NBC Digital Networks), where he served as General Manager, working with such as Procter & Gamble and Hilton Hotels & Resorts to create sustainable "private label" digital platforms. Previously, Mr. Johnson led NBC Universal's Digital Innovation team. Before joining NBC, he held roles at Tribune Interactive, PepsiCo (Quaker Foods) and Unilever . Carmichael Lynch has promoted Executive Creative Director Dave Damman to chief creative officer. Mr. Damman will oversee creative for all Carmichael Lynch clients, including Subaru of America, Jack Link's Beef Jerky and Newell Rubbermaid. Mr. Damman began his work in advertising over 20 years ago at Saatchi & Saatchi , New York, where he served as an art director. Following art directing roles at Dallas' Tracey-Locke and Minneapolis' Initio, he initially moved to Carmichael Lynch in 1996. During a two-year stint there, he helped strengthen and reestablish brands such as Harley-Davidson and Brown Foreman beverages. In 1998, he moved to Fallon , where he was group creative director on brands including Lee Jeans, Timberland and International Trucks. After founding his own agency, Damman Pearce, Mr. Damman returned to Carmichael Lynch in May 2011. Doner has added Jeff Voigt as senior VP-media insights. Mr. Voigt began his career as a media research analyst at JWT -- then J. Walter Thompson U.S. -- in Detroit, and he remained with the WPP company until coming to Doner . He was most recently senior partner-group communications research director, partaking in several successful new-business pitches. During his career, Mr. Voigt also led various cross-channel effectiveness studies, expanded digital planning, and provided brand-awareness models for multiple JWT offices. He has received four silver Effie Awards for his work in media planning for Kohl's, Goodyear and Tenneco. Horizon Media 's Los Angeles office has elevated Zach Rosenberg from general manager to the newly created position of exec VP-chief growth officer and Serena Duff from exec VP-managing partner to exec VP-general manager, Western Region. Mr. Rosenberg, who helped grow the L.A. office from $50 million to $450 million in 12 years, will now be responsible for driving growth of Horizon's core media business as well as the company's strategic divisions, including direct, social media, Scout (sports and entertainment marketing) and Eden Road Trading (trade/barter). He will also support the new-business efforts of Horizon's international network, Columbus Media. During her tenure at the company, Ms. Duff has played a key role in leading strategy for the West Coast office. She will now be charged with driving continued growth and innovation as well as leading overall management of the company's West Coast operations, serving clients including Jack in the Box, Clearwire, Constellation Wines, Crown Imports and Southern California Honda Dealers. On the heels of reorganizing into Thrillist Media Group and appointing Adam Chandler as sales chief, Thrillist named Shane Rahmani VP-business development and strategy. Based in the New York office, he will be primarily responsible for breaking new partnerships and leading strategic growth initiatives that result in new content, commerce and revenue opportunities for Thrillist, JackThreads and their affiliates. Mr. Rahmani was formerly senior director of strategy and operations at MTV Networks Digital Media Group. Prior to joining MTV , he worked in the consumer technology industry for Microsoft's Xbox Live and Gateway Computers.

People on the Move: James O'Reilly Is Sonic's New CMO

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