Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Matt Howell and Sebastian Gard of Modernista fame are now headed to Arnold Worldwide. Howell (left), who spent nearly three years at the former agency and served as president before splitting last month, is rumored to be taking the worldwide head of digital post at Arnold. Gard’s new gig wasn’t revealed, but during his year-plus at Modernista!, he served as its director of social media.
As we all know, the aforementioned agency has gone through a bit of an identity crisis shift as of late that has been accompanied by layoffs and Gary Koepke’s decision to “scale back” at Modernista! earlier this month.
Update: Yep, it’s official. Howell’s new post at Arnold will actually be managing partner, global chief digital officer while Gard joins as SVP, director of social media. Meanwhile, Bob Goodman will take on the role of VP, director of user experience. Like Gard, Goodman served in a similar role at his former employer, which in his case, was user experience director.
In addition to Howell, Gard and Goodman, Arnold has also hired five former Modernista! digital specialists with “expertise in social media, user experience and digital production.” The slew of new of hires will all be based in Arnold’s Boston office.
Update 2: The former Modernista! “digital specialists” signing on with Arnold include Greg Murphy and Matt Karolian, who will assume the roles of social media managers, and Lauren Shea and Brendon Volpe, who join as digital producers.