A source tells us that this week’s “globally streamlined” management shakeup at StarCom MediaVest Group branded content unit LiquidThread came as a shock to most staffers, though the agency’s own take positions it as more of a standard restructuring.
London-based Global President Olivier Gers showed up at LiquidThread’s Chicago office to tell employees that several executives would receive promotions and a few would be fired.
Brent Poer, who served as creative director at Jack Morton in the late 90s before beginning his move up the StarCom ladder, will now be global creative director. PR/entertainment veteran Juan Davila, who had been handling the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets, has been promoted to MD/global head of business development. John Doyle, who directed strategy at Cramer-Krasselt Chicago from 2008 to 2012, will be SVP/managing director of US, while Jill Griffin, who handled marketing for Anomaly, OMD and Martha Stewart Living(!) before jumping to Starcom in 2008, will be MD of operations for that locale.
A handful of high-ranking employees lost their jobs as well. Thomas Weeks, who spent the last 17-plus years with StarCom and moved up to the group director of branded content role in early 2010 just months before the company combined its three content units to create LiquidThread, is no longer with the agency.
Other layoffs include several unnamed staffers spread across the agency’s Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles offices; a spokesperson says the move affected less than five percent of LiquidThread’s total workforce.
Our source claims there will be more changes to come.