As we wrap up another work week, we look back on the agencies scaling and shifting their teams in response to accelerated growth, redefined brand strategy and refined focus areas for scale. See who joined forces and who parted ways on this week’s roster.
AbelsonTaylor
Jeremy Vannatta is joining AbelsonTaylor as vice president, account director. Vannatta is an experienced marketing strategist with significant experience in healthcare, and will lead a team supporting AbelsonTaylor’s oncology brands.
BBDO MPLS
BBDO MPLS hired Brenda Magnetti as its new vp, director of strategic planning. She will partner with CEO Neil White to lead strategic vision for both the agency and its clients. Magnetti brings experience working with brands like Mars, Wrigley, Mondelez and J&J.
BNO
Woman-owned creative agency BNO named Trista Walker, the company’s current president, as its new CEO. The change comes after 40 years of leadership by founder Joanne Obenauf, who will continue serving the agency as board chair.
Building Leaders and Creators
Building Leaders and Creators (BLAC) named Nicolet Gatewood as its executive director. BLAC is a national internship and DEI organization, and with the hire of Gatewood, the program is expanding its internship program to bring more young Black people into advertising, aiding them in full expressing themselves, finding community and ultimately leading.
Cartwright
Agency veteran Frances Great is joining Cartwright’s team as co-president, serving alongside founder and chief creative officer Keith Cartwright. Great’s appointment represents the agency’s continued expansion, which she will work to grow continuously by managing the company’s overall business development.
Croud
After a strong period of growth, Croud announced the addition of two new senior leaders. Rachelle Hansen, former general manager at PHD, will serve as vice president of client leadership and Gabriela Carlos, recently analytics director at Dentsu, will serve as media measurement director.
Golin
Golin promoted George Bryant to the agency’s new role of group chief creative officer. Bryant previously served as the founding partner and chief creative officer at The Brooklyn Brothers, part of the larger Golin Group. He will now run global creative operations for all Golin Group brands, including Golin, The Brooklyn Brothers, Virgo Health and DeVries Global.
Grey London
David Wigglesworth, currently creative director at Droga5 London, is joining Grey London in May as executive creative director. Wiggelsworth has led Amazon Prime Video’s “Great shows stay with you” TV ads, work for mobile app aggregator Setapp and the Diet Coke “Just Because” campaign. He will be responsible for scaling the creative heights at Grey, and working to improve quality of work across company clients.
Group Black
Group Black, the home for Black-owned media properties, is expanding with two key leadership hires. Kerel Cooper, digital advertising veteran, will serve as president of advertising. Laura Summers, previously vice president of global advertising sales at CBS Interactive, will serve as chief sales officer.
Handsome
Austin-based holistic creative design company handsome hired Pablo Marques de Carvalho as its inaugural chief creative and designer officer. Carvalho joins a leadership team with CEO John Roescher and president and chief operating officer Jennifer Allen. The three share a collective goal of building a new type of experience-focused agency.
HDMZ
Integrated life sciences marketing communications agency HDMZ has added several new staff members, including Dillon Allie as CEO and Rebecca Angelos as COO. These hires come in response to the agency’s unprecedented growth and aim to continue driving HDMZ to be one of the most admired marcom firms in life sciences.
M&C Saatchi
M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment North America has promoted Nicholas Rotondi to executive creative director. In this role, Rotondi will continue to guide overall creative vision and execution across the full client portfolio, including creative strategy through to production and execution, while building the studio team and its various integrated capabilities.
Maverick Group
Entertainment industry veteran Nick Addecott joined The Maverick Group with the goal of growing its sports and entertainment division. Addecott has experience leading sales, partnerships and growth at companies like Wilson Sporting Goods, Sportingbet and Tappit, working with clients like Kansas City Chiefs, Jacksonville Jaguars and San Diego Padres.
Max Connect
As Max Connect Marketing experiences rapid growth, the digital marketing agency promoted Jeff Pearson, Kelly Holladay and Ryan Roblyer to senior vice presidents. The three will execute on client and marketing strategy, creative direction and client-relationship building across retail, healthcare, higher education and automotive.
Mokboi
Global mobile marketing tech company Mokboi named industry veteran Suzanne Spence as its new CEO. Spence comes from Mofilm, a video content creation network where she previously served as CEO. The move comes in response to Mokboi’s 80% year-over-year organic growth in comparison to 2020.
Mono
Mono, a Minneapolis-based Stagwell agency, added five new leadership roles in response to its recent accelerated growth. The first four positions are filled by in-agency promotions. Katie Riddle will now serve as executive creative director, Julie Vessel as chief operations office, Melissa Mathei as director of account management and Kathleen Flanders as director of client operations. Suzy Langdell was hired to serve as director of business development.
Movers+Shakers
Movers+Shakers announced two newly-created roles in responses to its rapid growth of 2,227% over the past two years. John McGill was promoted to vice president of creative and Tom Hyde was hired as vice president of strategy.
Mutt Film
Mutt Film signed directors Neil Tardio and Emir Haverić to its directorial roster. Tardio is an L.A.-based director with work spanning broadcast, commercials, film, music videos and screenwriting with clients including AT&T, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and ESPN. Haverić is an expert in cinematography and CGI who crafts brand projects for brands including Mercedes, VW and BMW.
Publicis Sapient
Digital business transformation company Publicis Sapient appointed Abby Godee as its chief experience officer. Godee brings with her 25 years of consulting and corporate management experience and will be responsible for setting the vision for customer, user and employee experience.
RSA Films
Matilde Ramos Pintos, previously a key member of RSA & Black Dog Films’ U.K. sales team, joined RSA Films’ Los Angeles location as executive producer. Pintos will work to refresh brand creative and strategy of all agency clients in her new role.
RTB House
Industry veteran Bonnie DeVito is joining RTB House as head of talent acquisition to drive the company to its goal of doubling its size. DeVito has worked in the industry for over 20 years, holding leadership positions at Cycling Sports Group and Shutterstock. At RTB House, DeVito will drive recruitment efforts to attract best-in-class talent to the agency.
ShowHeroes
ShowHeroes Group appointed Eric Shih, a former executive at Teads, as its global advisor and board member. Shih brings 18 years of experience working on the advertiser and publisher sides of the video ecosystem to drive engagement with clients and partners like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. In his new role, he will provide strategic direction to the company.
Sparks & Honey
Hannah Hickman and Robb Henzi were promoted to leadership positions at sparks & honey as part of the agency’s focus on rolling out new practices centered on youth and policy and philanthropy. Hickman will serve as vp of client strategy and head of youth practice, and Henzi as senior vice president and head of policy and philanthropy practice.
Stagwell
Stagwell promoted Peter McElligott from interim general counsel to permanent general counsel amid the challenger network’s expanded central legal services push. In this new role, McElligott will lead the expanded legal department to drive regulatory, governance, enterprise and MSA work, as well as add value for partners across the company’s network.
Team Bubbly
Team Bubbly, an NYC-based video production agency, signed director Ashley Sears. Sears has experience in fine art and photojournalism with clients and projects across industries. She worked in fashion and beauty for years with clients including Cover Girl, Herbal Essences and Proctor and Gamble Prestige, as well as commercial partners including Tabasco, Hennessy VSOP and Budweiser.
Truth Collective
Truth Collective hired Karima Miller for its newly-created role of director of people and purpose. Coming from her previous role as DEI manager at Rich Products Corporation, Miller will work to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion and nurture staff development and well-being.
UTA
UTA announced the appointment of Richard Siklos, formerly vice president of communications for Netflix, as its new chief communications officer and partner. Siklos began his career as an award-winning business journalist at Forbes, New York Times and Sunday Telegraph, and expanded to corporate communications leadership at Time Warner, Inc., Warner Bros, HBO and CNN.