Creative agency Loyalkaspar is hiring esports marketer Chris Fitts as executive producer / creative director, based out of its Los Angeles office. Fitts, a marketing creative with an extensive background in gaming, sports and entertainment, has spent time at Riot Games and Amazon Games and has directed a documentary for ESPN on the emerging sport of Drone Racing. The appointment follows the agency's recent work with Blizzard's esports brand Overwatch League.

DDB Chicago is promoting Mel Routhier to executive creative director from her previous position of group creative drector. Routhier and fellow executive creative director Colin Selikow will both report to DDB Chicago chief creative officer John Maxham. Routhier will continue overseeing the creative for State Farm, one of the agency's largest accounts. In 2016 she was integral to developing and introducing State Farm's tagline, "Here to help life go right."

Fernando Desouches, the former senior global brand director for Axe/Lynx at Unilever, is joining London agenct BBD PerfectStorm to lead New Macho, a new marketing-to-men division set up to help brands challenge the way masculinity is currently defined and stereotyped. Desouches has 20 years experience within Unilever crafting global, mostly male, brands. As global Lynx / Axe director, he oversaw a review of the brand's positioning to ensure greater social relevance.

Jennifer Whitney, Refinery29's head of design, experiential, is joining NA Collective, an independent model of creative agency meets production company, as creative director. Reporting to founding partner and chief creative officer, Chiara Adin, Whitney will be responsible for overseeing creative across all clients including Tommy Hilfiger, Twitter, and SoundCloud. She joined Refinery29 as its first in-house senior experiential designer and worked on its 29Rooms experiences, including the most recent iterations in New York and Los Angeles. Prior to Refinery29 she worked as a designer for David Stark Design, a full-service event design and production company.

Atlanta-based creative agency My Friend's Nephew, whose clients include General Mills and Zaxby's restaurant chain, is appointing Ben Wallis as associate creative director and Melissa Withorn as senior designer / art director. Wallis has worked in advertising for over ten years as an art director and illustrator for brands like Google, The Coca-Cola Company, Jiffy Lube, and The New York City Ballet. Most recently, he was senior creative at Atlanta-based Blue Sky Agency and he has also worked at agencies including Havas Chicago and JWT Atlanta. Withorn joins from Atlanta-based creative agency Public School, where she spent two years after working an art director at XD Agency in Atlanta.

Australia's BMF is hiring Senior Art Director Elizabeth Commandeur, who joins with over 10 years' experience working in Sydney, New Zealand, Hong Kong and most recently Copenhagen, where she was associate creative director at Vice Scandinavia. The agency is also promoting creative James Sexton to senior copywriter and Emily Field from a planning role into a hybrid strategist and creative role.

Gyro U.K., the Dentsu Aegis Network business-to-business agency, is appointing Steve McCarron as managing director of its Manchester office. McCarron joins from Cheetham Bell JWT, where he has been managing director since November 2014. Prior to Cheetham Bell JWT, he was head of media arts at TBWAManchester.