Summer is winding down, but the revolving door of agency moves is just starting to spin like an off-coast hurricane. This week saw plenty of new hires, promotions, mergers and new business wins. Take a whirl and check out all the new announcements.
Apiary
Apiary Digital, a performance marketing collective, has named Tiffany Coletti Kaiser as its new chief executive officer. She inherits the CEO role from Apiary Digital founder Karen Amundson, who will stay on to chair the advisory board.
Coletti Kaiser comes to Apiary after nearly two decades in leadership—first on the agency side at Grey, then McCann Worldgroup, where she rose to the role of director, business development. Following McCann, Coletti Kaiser was group account director at Eleven Inc. and then managing director at Translation, before her most recent position as evp marketing at Digital Remedy.
Barbarian
Barbarian, the digital creative agency backed by Cheil, has appointed technologist Sunny Nan as director of technology. Nan joins from startup Coinback, where he was chief technology officer. Nan will work across the breadth of the agency’s clients, with specific responsibility for Caliber, Samsung, AMEX and Kendo.
Blue Chip
Chicago independent agency Blue Chip has reorganized leadership, replacing its traditional hierarchy with a collaborative C-suite of partners who report to founder and CEO Stanton Kawer. It includes a new president, chief marketing officer, chief growth officer and chief financial officer, in addition to a redefined COO position.
Jamie Olson will serve as the first president, responsible for leading the agency. Olson is a 15-year Blue Chip veteran who has navigated many roles at Blue Chip, most recently overseeing the client leadership department.
Dan Eisenberg is Blue Chip’s first chief marketing officer. Previously serving as svp/marketing and business development, he has created client relationships with White Castle, Merrell Footwear and E. & J. Gallo Winery.
Sarah Vanheirseele is Blue Chip’s first chief growth officer, dedicated to developing growth strategies that can propel clients and technologies to yield new revenue streams. She was previously svp/strategic services.
Amy Ireton will serve as the chief financial officer. Previously, as evp/finance and human resources, Ireton led successful mergers and acquisitions and managed over $1 billion in revenue for Blue Chip.
Jeff Skolnik is Blue Chip’s new chief operating officer and previously was evp/general manager of revenue and resources.
In addition, Joel Walker, vp/group creative director, has been made a partner.
DeVito/Verdi
New York agency DeVito/Verdi has named Dave Molini as its chief digital officer. He will lead the advertising agency’s mission of melding digital innovation to its media and creative offerings.
Molini brings 15 years of digital media experience across the WPP and Publicis agency network. Most recently, he was a managing director, partner at Neo Media World, a global digital transformation agency under the WPP agency umbrella. At DeVito/Verdi, he will oversee the agency’s digital team.
FCB
FCB has appointed Jordan Doucette as chief creative officer of FCB West, the network’s creative agency in San Francisco. In partnership with FCB West president and chief strategy officer Simon White, Doucette will lead creative vision for FCB West’s client portfolio that includes Levi’s, Clorox and Ghirardelli and Hoka One One. Doucette will also join FCB’s global creative council.
Most recently, as partner and president at No Fixed Address Inc., Doucette helped Sunnybrook Hospital launch “#UnsilenceTheConversation,” a campaign and baby content ad blocker to help those who have suffered pregnancy loss and normalize the conversation around it. Prior to joining No Fixed Address, Jordan was the chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Chicago.
Green Stone
Digital experience agency Green Stone has hired Lauren Winslow as design director. A longtime creative and strategic leader, Winslow has alternated between the brand and agency worlds. Most recently she spent seven years as senior art director at Apple, focusing on design systems for interactive retail web and app experiences. Previously, Winslow also worked at Fluid as senior art director and at Madewell.
Jellyfish
Digital partner agency Jellyfish has appointed Thomas Byrne as executive vice president of sales and partnerships, and Adam Guilfoyle as vice president of sales and partnerships, as the business continues on a growth trajectory. Byrne and Guilfoyle join Jellyfish from Dentsu’s Merkle, where they held the posts of executive vice president, EMEA, agency services, and head of agency sales, respectively.
Killi
Killi, a supplier of compliant consumer data, has appointed Susan Mandell as vice president of sales. Mandell will be responsible for growing the revenue line for all products of Killi. Mandell will oversee Killi’s sales operations and team, both domestically and internationally,
Merge
Merge—a technology company that promotes health, wealth and happiness—has acquired digital marketing consultancy, Blue Moon Digital, Inc. This move enhances Merge’s performance marketing capabilities to offer a full set of ecommerce solutions.
Movement Strategy
Social media agency Movement Strategy has hired data and insights specialist Wendy Kong, content head Ed Felix and DEI manager Adriana Crawford.
Kong was formerly the group data strategy director at Droga5, as well as holding various data positions at Ketchum, Initiative and Condé Nast. As group director, head of data and insights, Kong will lead a dedicated team of data experts.
Content head Felix has served as director of content strategy at Conill Advertising, engagement director at Barkley and digital director at Y&R. As Movement Strategy’s senior director, head of digital content, he will be responsible for leading engagement managers and digital producers.
As senior diversity, equity and inclusion manager, Crawford will lead the dedicated DEI committee the agency established in 2019. She will also manage DEI initiatives and communications for the agency, including DEI goals, priorities, audits and action items across work, internal organization and marketing.
Squeak E. Clean Studios
Global creative audio network Squeak E. Clean Studios has brought on senior producer Tarjas (Tee) White and composer Yonít Spiegelman to join its NYC team. White brings over a decade of experience as a music producer and previously was at Audio Network and Droga5’s Second Child. Spiegelman has written original compositions for campaigns for top brands including Nike, Facebook and Neutrogena.
Superfly
Experience company Superfly has hired former Babbel and Freshly brand executive Meghan Taylor for the role of vp of strategy. Taylor has a history of innovative brand strategy approaches for successful campaigns top agencies and has worked across a diverse mix of clients including Kellogg’s, Hallmark, Kimberly Clark and The Hershey Company.
Tank Design
Brand and experience design firm Tank Design has promoted Katie Cohen to content strategy director and Jennie Osber to senior account manager. Cohen will spearhead content strategy efforts for Tank’s experience design practice. Before joining Tank in 2019, Cohen held a variety of roles spanning content evaluation and planning, UX writing, product marketing and journalism at companies including Google, MullenLowe U.S., TripAdvisor and Fidelity Investments.
Osber will be responsible for leading account service and project management efforts for clients and for developing Tank’s marketing and communications materials. Prior to joining Tank in 2018, Osber was an account executive at social impact marketing agency THD.
Thinkingbox
Global creative collective Thinkingbox has promoted Corey Hankey to managing director of its Salt Lake City office. He will manage operations for the expanding western market and be responsible for continuing to build the company and support client partnerships.
Hankey has been with the business for 13 years, progressing from developer at Welikesmall, which was acquired by Thinkingbox in early 2020, to the leadership team. During his tenure he has held the roles of director of development, technical producer, executive producer and most recently director of client services.
Together w/
Lightning Bolt Surf USA has chosen Together w/ as agency of record for its relaunch in the United States. The account will be managed by Doug Livingston, partner at Together w/ and based in the New York office.
Via
Portland, Maine-based agency Via has named Layne Harris as head of creative technology. He will report to chief creative officer, Bobby Hershfield, and will be charged with developing and leading the creative technology discipline. Additionally, he will be responsible for collaborating with creative teams to develop digital ideas and explore new ways to interact with brands through technology. Harris will work with clients including Arm & Hammer, Perdue and Chick-fil-A.
Harris previously founded the Innovation Lab at 360i and most recently led the creative technology discipline at Big Spaceship.
Walton Isaacson
Walton Isaacson has won the ThinkLA DIG (Diversity, Inclusion, Gender) Award, presented by ThinkLA at this year’s 11th Annual Idea Awards gala.
The show celebrates the best of Los Angeles/Southern California’s campaigns, companies, and individuals. The DIG Award goes to the company that best demonstrates and celebrates their commitment to diversity across race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, ability and other differentiators across all levels of the organization.