[sydney, australia] The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is hiring Australian cinema-advertising executive Terry Savage as its CEO, starting March 21. He replaces Franz Prenner, who took the job in January 2002 and left in September. Mr. Savage was executive chairman of the Val Morgan cinema-advertising group in Sydney, where he spent more than 30 years. Val Morgan has been the Australian representative for the Cannes festival for more than 15 years. Mr. Savage, who is moving to London from Sydney, called the new job "about as an exciting role as you can get." He praised the diversification of the festival, which added direct-marketing awards last year, into areas outside media advertising. "The blueprint is working extremely well," Mr. Savage said. "Fundamentally the Cannes Festival is understanding and tapping into the extraordinary convergence issues relating to all media and marketing communication."