- Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Saatchi & Saatchi New York has filled its director of strategic planning post with Claudine Cheever, executive planning director at McCann Erickson in San Francisco.

Cheever, 42, fills the vacancy left by the May exit of Kristin Volk and becomes part of a New York management team that includes chief creative officer Gerry Graf, managing director Michael Zuna and Mary Baglivo, who is both CEO of the office and of the Americas region.

Cheever will start in mid-July and report to Baglivo, who described her as a "tremendous talent who has a brilliant planning mind, cutting-edge creativity and an inspirational leadership style." The office has about 30 planners and top clients include Procter & Gamble, General Mills and JC Penney.

Cheever spent 10 months at Interpublic Group's McCann, where she led the planning department, working with all clients and helping to pitch new business. McCann has yet to name her successor.

Before McCann, Cheever was deputy director of the planning department at Omnicom Group's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, where her clients included Comcast, Saturn and Frito-Lay. Cheever spent five years at Goodby.

Her first job in advertising was as a planner at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, where she handled brands such as Motorola and Mattel's Barbie.

Before advertising, she worked in publishing, as a marketer of books that targeted young adults.

In a statement, Cheever said she was attracted to Saatchi because "I love Mary and Gerry's approach to our business as well as their ability to inspire and lead. They've set the tone at Saatchi as an entrepreneurial, strategic, fast-moving place."