Around we go for another trip through the revolving door, where there seems to be no end to people uprooting and moving to other agencies. No surprise there, but this week is chock full of people moves, new venture launches, mergers, acquisitions and promotions.
Break on through to the other side and see all the news that’s fit to upload.
AbelsonTaylor
AbelsonTaylor has hired Kristin Glunz, a strategic brand-builder, as senior account director. She will oversee two consumer brands newly added to the agency’s roster.
Glunz has more than two decades of professional experience, including an earlier stint with AbelsonTaylor. Most recently, Glunz collaborated remotely with the Mayo Clinic on communications initiatives for internal and external audiences. Previously, she worked as group account director for Chicago-based SCC, where she led a variety of consumer and healthcare accounts and contributed to business development.
Accenture
While the news of David Droga taking over from Brian Whipple as Accenture Interactive CEO made the big news, some other changes at Accenture featured some prominent names as well. Jill Kramer was named chief marketing and communications officer at Accenture in June and has since named a leadership team, including the most recent move, appointing Duncan Marshall as global head of creative strategy. Other recent appointments include Mark Prince as global head of brand, Marc-Antoine Jarry as lead for marketing and communications strategy, and Monica Spruill as lead for diversity and development.
Allen & Gerritsen
New Leaders Council (NLC), a national leadership development organization dedicated to training and connecting a new generation of equity-driven leaders, has rebranded, an effort that was led by independent agency Allen & Gerritsen (A&G). A&G’s strategy team worked with NLC internal stakeholders to develop a refreshed brand identity that encapsulates the energy, scale and cross-sector strength of the organization.
As part of the rebrand, A&G helped to update NLC’s design and logo system, originally designed for a single chapter, but today is used in nearly all 50 chapters across the country.
Appnovation
Global digital consultancy Appnovation has appointed Yann Gautier to its global leadership team as general manager, global managed services. Gautier will lead Appnovation’s global managed services offering, which includes support and maintenance, ongoing evolution, performance optimization, data and analytics, security and compliance.
Based in London, Gautier brings 20 years of experience to the role. He was previously at Havas CX, Publicis Sapient and WPP.
Avrett Free Ginsberg
Avrett Free Ginsberg (afg&), a global advertising agency based in New York City and with offices in Los Angeles, Barcelona, London, Singapore, has promoted three top agency executives, Amy Adams, Tara DeCoursey and Dawn Terrazas, to chief managing directors. The three have been with afg& for over 10 years.
“These sharp, forward-thinking individuals have each nurtured strong relationships with each other, nurtured a strong agency culture, and most importantly nurtured strong Client relationships,” said Frank C. Ginsberg, founder, creative chairman and CEO of afg&.
Billion Dollar Boy
Global creative influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy (BDB) has bolstered its senior leadership team with new hires in its creative and account management divisions and a new U.K. CEO.
Alex Williamson joins as BDB’s creative director from Ogilvy, where he steered the agency’s Social.Lab arm in Brussels (2015) and London (2017). Williamson will be responsible for leading BDB’s creative division across its EMEA client base.
Lloyd Sampson, who joins from Grey London and has previously held tenures at Saatchi & Saatchi and VCCP, has been appointed co-head of account management. Sampson will oversee client portfolios, the performance and development of the account management team and the financial efficiency and profitability of BDB’s client accounts.
Both Williamson and Sampson will report to Thomas Walters, who has been promoted from CSO to CEO of BDB U.K.
Ed East will step into the role of group CEO, supporting the expansion of U.S. operations.
Carat
Carat, a Dentsu company, has appointed Clare Chapman as its Carat UK CEO, responsible for leading the agency across the U.K. Chapman has over two decades of experience and joins Carat UK from Essence, where she was evp and head of media EMEA, a role that saw her oversee the 350+ strong media planning and activation teams.
Chapman will report to Hamish Nicklin, CEO of media, Dentsu, and will be responsible for leading and growing the iconic media agency across its four U.K. offices.
Prior to Essence, Chapman served as managing partner and head of planning at Maxus and spent more than seven years in account leadership roles as client director for Havas UK and as group account director for MPG.
Compadre
Creative marketing agency Compadre is scaling up its strategy team with the addition of Taylor Katai as senior director of creative strategy and Daphne Brunelle as brand strategist. Katai and Brunelle are seasoned entertainment and brand marketers who bring both agency and client-side experience to their respective roles at Compadre, spanning television, film, media and consumer brands.
Prior to joining Compadre, Katai was director of strategy at Giant Spoon, where she led entertainment and experiential marketing projects for Amazon Prime, Paramount Pictures and STX Entertainment. Prior to Giant Spoon, she was at Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment and NBCUniversal.
Brunelle’s career took off at Omnicom and Sid Lee as a digital strategist. She was also client-side at HelloFresh, and had a strategy role at Vice Canada. Most recently, she was a freelancer and before that was at RAPP as senior brand experience strategist.
Cramer-Krasselt
Independent marketing and communications agency Cramer-Krasselt has promoted Stephani Estes to executive vice president, general manager of the agency’s Chicago headquarters. Estes was promoted to associate general manager in January 2021 and will take over full management duties of the Chicago office from C-K’s president and COO Karen Seamen, who will focus on overall agency operations and new business.
Estes joined the agency in July 2015 as vice president, digital strategy and implementation. In 2017 she was promoted to senior vice president, director of media strategy and in 2019 took over all the agency’s media strategy and activation, programmatic trading, paid search and paid social, media operations, and staff as senior vice president, executive director of media.
CrowdPharm
Two independent full-service agencies, CrowdPharm and Cross & Wild, are combining forces and will move forward as one agency—CrowdPharm—to provide end-to-end services to healthcare marketers. All Cross & Wild employees join CrowdPharm’s team.
Engine
Global, full-service media and marketing services company Engine has named Vashti Chatman as chief talent officer at Engine U.S. She is charged with leading the human resources team in the U.S., focusing on policies, people, culture and workplace strategies.
Chatman joined Engine in 2015 as director of talent for the Engine Insights U.S. business pillar.
Engine Creative
Engine Creative in the U.K. has launched a new social-first practice, NGN-LAB, and added a new brand partnerships capability to its integrated offering–both of which will be headed up by new hire Matthew Harrington, who joins as head of editorial and brand partnerships.
NGN-LAB is a social-first creative practice designed to offer agile growth solutions for new and existing clients via its team of in-house creators and external network of cultural specialists, editors and influencers. NGN-LAB will provide a holistic approach to brand growth through social-first content and commerce, as well as enhancing social creativity and innovation across Engine’s wider creative output. Harrington will also be responsible for leading and developing brand partnerships as a key part of Engine Creative’s integrated advertising offering. Harrington previously founded AMV’s creative partnership division AMV/CO.
Fitzco
Atlanta independent agency Fitzco has acquired marketing and technology consultancy, Constant Analytics. The transaction unites the two marketing services firms. Constant Analytics was founded in 2013 by its principal, Jim Head, a statistician and longtime marketing consultant.
By Q4, the Constant Analytics team will be fully integrated into Fitzco and operate as Fitzco Analytics. Head will assume the title of president, Fitzco Analytics.
Hayden5
Video agency Hayden5 has added Jessica Zerby as account manager. Most recently, Zerby worked as a creative producer at Target. Zerby will work out of the company’s Los Angeles location.
Hero4Hire Creative
Emmy-nominated studio Hero4Hire Creative has tapped Jordan Beck as head of development. Beck will oversee the launch of original IP and creative projects from the Massachusetts-based shop.
Beck is an award-winning filmmaker, performer and creative executive with 15 years in the entertainment industry. He previously was a start-up executive for film distributor Fun Academy.
Markacy
Markacy, a digital strategy and marketing firm based in New York City, has partnered with the Tamara Mellon brand, a global luxury footwear and accessories company, to help drive its ecommerce growth.
McGarrah Jessee
Austin-based independent brand development agency McGarrah Jessee (McJ) has appointed Ayeshia Toy as head of people and culture, a new role for the company. Toy will lead the agency’s HR, talent and DEI efforts and improve the onboarding experience for all incoming hires.
Toy has 15 years of experience, including working client side for Dell and Hyatt Hotels, agency side at GSD&M and Wieden+Kennedy and—most recently—human side for Courageous Conversation, an organization providing coaching and consulting services for racial equity leaders around the world.
Movable Ink
Software company Movable Ink has made strategic new hires to aid in the company’s expansion across Australia, including Andrew McGhie as client experience manager and Daniel Daly and Esti Frischling as strategic account directors.
Moving Picture Company
Global production studio Moving Picture Company (MPC) has added creative director Matt Pascuzzi to its executive leadership team. Previously at Framestore, Pascuzzi joins MPC’s New York studio to further cement and develop the creative studio’s visual effects offering to the region’s top creative agencies and brands.
Rideview
Yates Holley and John Kim have launched Los Angeles-based hybrid company, Rideview. With a mission to become a one-stop shop for automotive art direction and visualization, Rideview offers services including visual effects, production, virtual production, experience design, development, retouching and strategy.
Holley is Rideview’s executive producer/partner, while Kim is creative director/partner. Their creative partnership spans nearly a decade, beginning with interactive projects for Toyota at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles.
Shadow
Shadow is now the agency of record for Claire’s US, a jewelry and accessories retailer. The agency will put its full-service capabilities to work across media, influencer, events, creative and partnerships on behalf of Claire’s. Shadow will handle media relations for the global brand’s business as well as influencer marketing, experiential and event production, creative strategy and partnerships.
Studio City/PXL
PXL has hired creative director Bennett Sell-Kline. He has over 15 years experience in storytelling, leading content creation teams around the globe and building immersive experiences. As a creative director, he has led campaigns and built experiences in both the physical and digital spaces, and as an executive producer, he has executed multi-million dollar budgets and led projects spanning over 20 countries.
TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles
TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles has promoted Kirsten Rutherford to executive creative director, joining the agency’s creative leadership team. Rutherford started at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA in 2015 where she led creative for brands including Intuit QuickBooks, Southwest Airlines, Viking Cruises and Persil. She had a brief stint at Team One managing global creative for Expedia before rejoining Chiat\Day LA in April 2020.
Talk Shop
Katie Northy has launched East Coast creative management company Talk Shop. Northy has over a decade of experience representing creative talent in film production, editorial, design, music and audio, and brings a hands-on approach to establishing brands and nurturing creatives.
Talk Shop’s inaugural roster includes Bandit, Butter Music + Sound, Greencard, Honor Society, Identity, Mr. Bronx, Scout and Valiant Pictures. Stepping out as an independent talent representative, Northy aims to widen her circle of trusted resources, expose her agency and brand client to new talent and boost diversity and representation in all roles behind the camera.
UM
UM, IPG Mediabrands’ media network, is boosting its senior leadership team with the appointment of Natasha Murray as its chief client officer. Murray joins from Newsworks’ Team Nation, the first-ever alliance between all news industry publishers, working with the Cabinet Office and MG OMD’s OmniGOV.
Murray brings extensive senior board-level experience to the role, including head of client service and then four years as managing director at Havas Media UK. She was also director of client partnerships at Guardian News and Media.