The newly even-more independent Johannes Leonardo has brought on brand new leads for two of its most important accounts, Volkswagen and MassMutual.
Ben Muldrew is now business integration lead on VW and Haley Mazza is group account director on MassMutual, effective immediately. Both report to head of account management Emily Wilcox.
The former spent 11 years at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, where he led Nissan North America, and the latter comes from 72andSunny, where she headed up Uber and Allstate.
“Ben’s category experience leading high-functioning teams and delivering best-in-class ideas will be integral to the mission we have for this brand, and our success as a collective team,” said Wilcox. It helps that he’s not a stranger to the brand. Before joining TBWA, he ran VW Global Motorsports sponsorships at Austria’s Weirather-Wenzel & Partners, and he also worked on the account while at Arnold Boston.
Muldrew called Johannes Leonardo “an agency that is poised for amazing things.”
Mazza previously worked at such agencies as McCann, W+K, JWT and TBWA on accounts like Levi’s, Powerade, Royal Caribbean and, yes, Nissan. She said, “There is an energy that you can feel as soon as you walk through the door” at Johannes Leonardo, adding, “I am thrilled to join such a brave and talented group of individuals.”
On another note, a couple of people tell us that JL is looking for a new office to compliment those unspecified shares it bought back from WPP a few weeks ago. There’ll be a bit of space freed up what with co-founder and ecd Ferdinando Verderi traveling to his new, second job as creative director of Vogue Italia, but the place has been feeling a bit crowded of late, and VW is a big account even if it is staffed primarily by freelancers.
We wonder how Possible, which led the WPP pitch, feels about Johannes imposing on its turf.
The agency’s first work for VW should launch very soon.