This week's agency moves, hires and partnerships: November 5, 2019

VaynerMedia hired Wanda Pogue as chief strategy officer. She joins from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where she held the same title, working with clients including Walmart, Procter & Gamble and USAA. Prior to that, she was global strategy director, leading on brands like Olay, Tide/Ariel, Head & Shoulders and Trident. Her first position at Saatchi was as regional strategy director across the United States and Latin America. McCann Worldgroup in Europe appointed Adrian Botan as chief creative officer, a new role for the region. He will continue in his current role as president of the Creative Leadership Council in Europe. For the last five years, he has been global ECD for the network, leading it to be named 2019 European Network of the Year at Cannes Lions. BBDO hired Alex Booker and Philip Sicklinger as executive creative directors on Ford in North America. They will be based in New York but split time in Detroit. They join from MullenLowe U.S., where they were group creative directors. The pair has also worked together at BBH New York, BMF and M&C Saatchi in Australia, and have worked with brands including Aldi, PlayStation, E-Trade and Tap King. Johannes Leonardo promoted Maria Perez to head of production and agency operations. She has been an executive producer at the agency since 2016. Prior to that, she was a freelance producer working with Adidas. She has also held positions at 72andSunny Amsterdam and 180 Amsterdam and worked with clients including Samsung, Smirnoff, Coke, Versace, Alexander Wang and Benetton. Code and Theory promoted Ben Berentson to managing director of the agency’s New York headquarters. Previously, he was group director of creative strategy, overseeing the Creative Strategy and Data, Analytics, Research departments and leading digital programs for clients including CNN, Mars, NBC, CNBC and Comcast. AKQA hired Natasha Avery as director of talent acquisition, North America, a new position for the agency, overseeing talent strategy for the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and New York offices. She joins from Edelman, where she spent 12 tears, most recently as EVP, talent acquisition. After its acquisition of PopSugar, Group Nine announced its combined management structure. From PopSugar, CEO Brian Sugar becomes Group Nine’s president. PopSugar Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Sean Macnew becomes Group Nine’s CFO. PopSugar Chief Revenue Officer Geoff Schiller assumes the role for Group Nine. PopSugar EVP of Product Marketing and Sales Strategy Chris George becomes chief operating officer for Group Nine. Group Nine CEO Ben Lerer, Chief Brand Officer Suzanne Kolb, Chief People Officer Annie Trombatore and Chief Communications Officer April Mellody continue in their roles. Omnicom consumer brand consultancy Sterling Brands hired Susan Cantor as CEO, overseeing offices in New York, San Francisco and Cincinnati. She joins from branding firm RedPeak, where she was CEO. She also spent 11 years at Lowe New York, including two years as president and CEO, led her own agency ClearBlueSky and was a partner at Thinktopia. Serviceplan Moscow announced a new leadership team: Managing Director Olga Starichenko, Executive Creative Director Evgenia Arabkina and Strategic Planning Director Anastasia Boykova. Starichenko has held positions at Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and BBDO, leading accounts for clients including P&G, Dirol Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris and X5. Arabkina has worked at Saatchi & Saatchi and set up Havas Life Moscow, where she led global communication development for Durex. Boykova worked in strategy at Havas, leading RB and Sandoz, and worked on Purina brands at McCann Erickson. Ogilvy South Africa hired Mathieu Plassard as chief growth officer. Most recently, he was CEO of Ogilvy Africa (West, East and Central Africa), running 24 offices working with clients such as Coca-Cola, Airtel, Kenya Airways and Total. During his tenure, Ogilvy Nairobi also won its first Cannes Lion. Design and experience agency Jam3 promoted Jordan Cuddy to partner and managing director in the L.A. office. Jessica Clements was hired as head of strategy in the Toronto office. She joins from Design Lobby, where she was design strategy and innovation director. Vito Rezza joins the agency as chief financial officer. Previously, he was EVP, CFO/COO of IPG Mediabrands Canada. Laura Cortes was hired as creative director in the Toronto office. Previously, she was the head of digital at Warner Bros. Records (UK). Kaitlyn Lacy and Leslie Uy were promoted to executive producers. Shawn Sprocket joins Godfrey Dadich Partners as design director, emergent experiences. Most recently, he was product designer at Facebook working on AR and VR for Portal. Prior to that, he was design lead at Airbnb, a product designer at IBM and a designer at Condé Nast. Mering hired Anthony Brooks as associate creative director/writer, Amber Witzke as senior art director and Sarah Turner and Brian McIntyre as senior writers. Most recently, Brooks was senior copywriter at Leo Burnett. Witzke joins from Un/common, where she was associate creative director. Turner has held positions at Grey New York and Crispin Porter & Bogusky. McIntyre joins from ViTRO, where he was a copywriter. Connecticut agency Colangelo named David Fiore as chief creative officer. He joins from Catapult Marketing. He also spent three years as ECD at Hydraulic and was vice president, creative director at Story Worldwide and SVP, group creative director at Leo Burnett Interactive.

This week's agency moves, hires and partnerships: November 5, 2019

Featured Stories