People news from Believe, CP+B UK and more
Believe Media has signed director Allen Hughes to its roster. With his twin brother Albert, as part of The Hughes Brothers, he has most recently directed Denzel Washington in the post-apocalyptic The Book of Eli. Earlier the duo directed Johnny Depp in the Jack The Ripper-inspired From Hell, the documentary feature American Pimp and the Vietnam War-era drama, Dead Presidents. Pevious spot work has included work for Gatorade with Usain Bolt; Reebok's 'I Am What I Am' campaign which featured skateboarder Stevie Williams as well as music artists such as Jay-Z and 50 Cent; Nike with Lebron James; and Best Buy with the Black Eyed Peas. He has also directed music videos for the likes of Dr. Dre. His next feature film is the forthcoming Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg. 
CP+B has hired Rob Steiner as executive integrated producer to head the agency's UK production team and all production output. Steiner, who will be based out of CP+B's London office working on clients like Milka, Paddy Power and Ubisoft, was formerly operations director at Wieden + Kennedy, London. There, he oversaw work such as all of the Honda UK creative for five years, including the 'Grr' and 'Cog' spots, the latter of which was the most-awarded commercial of 2004 according to the Gunn Report. At CP+B, Steiner will be reunited with the Cog art director and copywriter, and current CP+B executivecreative directors Matt Gooden and Ben Walker. Prior to W+K he was head of TV at Grey London, where he set up the TV/production department from scratch, and has produced at Spectre, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper and WCRS. Steiner most recently freelanced at CHI, where he worked on TV and Web video for Lexus.
GSD&M has named Jay Russell (left) as executive creative director as part of a number of leadership changes at the Austin-based agency. Russell, replacing Mike Wilson who left the agency in January 2011, rejoined the agency in early April after serving as a creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder. Previously at GSD&M, Russell led the global creative on the BMW business. GSD&M also named Marianne Malina as president. She joined GSD&M 13 years ago and has served as executive vice president, SVP/group account director and VP/creative managing director. The agency also named Carmen Graf as SVP/ director of planning and consumer connections; Betty Pat McCoy as SVP/director of media investment and Jeanne Crockett as SVP/operations.
Commercial production house SFI (Simpson Films), headed by founder/director Jerry Simpson, has hired David Nelson to serve as executive producer. Prior to joining Long Island City-based SFI, Nelson line produced for director Greg Ramsey on tabletop productions and VFX/green screen shoots out of production house Curious Pictures. Concurrently, he has been working as a DGA First AD for various production companies, including Jerry Simpson at SFI. Earlier, as a line producer/assistant director, his commercial production clients have included: Bully Pictures, Celsius Films, Chelsea Pictures, Curious Pictures, Czar US, Eyeball NYC, Freemarket Films, Go Film, Humble TV, Propaganda Films, @radical.media, Shilo, Stardust TV, and Stun Creative.
