Dentsu Aegis’s 360i has announced several new creative hires and parted ways with a number of other senior staffers in another round of agency revolving door.
The agency hired Aileen Calderon as one of its newest group creative directors last November along with Fabio Seidl of Leo Burnett Chicago and John Heath, formerly with BBDO New York.
Earlier this month, it also named Michelle Barna-Stern VP of social marketing.
Recent departures include:
- VP/head of production Joe Jaffe (who is now an independent consultant and “recovering advertising executive”)
- group director of content production Phillip Pessaro (who landed at Tribal Worldwide this week)
- group creative director Stuart Harricks
- creative director Doug Lemon
- group account director Rob Zuurbier, who left to become partner and managing director at Superheroes New York.
All three GCDs report to CCO Pierre Lipton, who says of Calderon, “We’re extremely happy to have Aileen as part of the team. Her work has helped redefine how brands should behave in today’s world, and we’re excited about what she’ll help our clients accomplish next.”
Calderon most recently spent more than eight years with KBS, rising from the level of senior copywriter to creative director and working primarily on the BMW account (whose co-CCOs were both fired by CEO Guy Hayward last week). In the past, Calderon has held copywriting and account roles at Digitas and Allen & Gerritsen, creating work for such clients as Harman Audio, American Express, The New York Times and AOL.
Barna-Stern joins 360i from Blue State Digital, a firm founded by veterans of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. She served as executive director of content and campaigns there, working for such clients as Ford, Lloyds Bank and Nestlé. The new VP, who has a background in public relations, was previously director of social media communications at Deep Focus for more than three years. She will report to New York general manager Matt Wurst.
An agency spokesperson did not elaborate on the reasons for these staffing changes.
The most recent 360i news included the addition of Butterfinger to its client roster around the same time it made the new hires mentioned above.