It was a short work week, but plenty of agencies were hiring, announcing new ventures and collecting new clients. Take a look at what the last four days sent through the Revolving Door Roundup.
AKQA
AKQA has appointed Hideaki Hara as general manager for AKQA Tokyo. His appointment is part of the wider China and Japan management transition. Sam Sterling held the role of managing director AKQA China and Japan for three years, and was promoted to chief strategy officer, APAC late last year.
Hara joined AKQA in 2013 as community manager and has grown with the company since then, most recently holding the role of client partner. Over his time at AKQA he’s served clients such as Nike, Google, and Itochu and has contributed to a growth year for the studio.
Ayzenberg Group
Global communications, tech, and consulting coalition Ayzenberg Group has hired Victor M. Parker II as director, corporate communications. Parker will oversee and celebrate the creative work from the group’s multiple companies and products, including Ayzenberg advertising agency, A-List Games, alistdaily.com, a.Open Studio, BrandSoulmates, ION and Social Index.
CGS
CGS, a global provider of business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services, has named Mark Tullio as the company’s vice president and chief marketing officer. Tullio will lead the CGS global marketing team, providing strategic guidance and leadership on everything from integrated marketing to brand strategy and positioning.
Tullio has more than 25 years of global marketing experience, including stints at global brands Booz Allen Hamilton, Sage Software, NBCUniversal and Kaplan.
DeVito/Verdi
The NYU School of Global Public Health is partnering with New York advertising agency DeVito/Verdi to best communicate the school’s unique standing, its bold mission and its diverse curriculum to prospective students.
The Manhattan-based school has been experiencing a steady rise in applications and queries from students seeking to explore the discipline following the onset of the pandemic.
DeVito/Verdi will develop a comprehensive digital advertising campaign aimed at tapping into the interest in the field, as it seeks to increase the student body of future pioneers in global health studies. The work will target recent college graduates, high school graduates, and those considering a career switch.
FCB
FCB Health Network announced that George Musi has joined Solve(d)—the Network’s data and media company born from creative agency DNA—as managing director. Musi will report to FCB Health Network chief commercial officer Mike Guarino and will be responsible for furthering the agency’s leadership. Musi succeeds former managing director Ken Beatty, who will remain with Solve(d) as a consultant to ensure consistency and continuity.
KC Truth
Independent advertising agency KC Truth has appointed Mike DePauw to the newly created position of executive director. He will work closely with founder and CEO Sue Kruskopf to deliver strategy, creative, and media to KC Truth’s clients at a global scale.
Most recently, DePauw was svp, director of account leadership at Periscope, where he managed key accounts such as UnitedHealth Group, Cox Communications, Bellisio Foods, and Summit Brewing. Prior to that, he spent time at Leo Burnett in Italy and Switzerland, and Ogilvy in New York and Singapore.
La Comunidad
Lisandro Cardozo has been named the new general creative director at La Comunidad. Cardozo joins La Comunidad, the Latin American office of The Community, with more than 15 years of experience in the advertising industry, including spending the last 10 years as a creative leader at Grey Argentina.
With this announcement, La Comunidad has rounded out its full leadership team, with Cardozo joining Julieta Rey, vp regional managing director LATAM, and Ramiro González Venzano, general manager.
Mother
Media by Mother, the newly launched independent media agency from Mother, has hired Paul Furia as the agency’s first head of content and creative packaging. He will report into Media by Mother CEO David Gaines.
“We are not just building a media agency. We are reinventing creativity through the lens of Media. Paul’s addition will help us manage how creative concepts turn up in the real world, digital or otherwise, but still maintain the integrity of the original idea,” said Gaines in a statement.
Furia joins Media by Mother from within the Mother family, where he facilitated entertainment partnerships within Mother’s N.Y. and L.A. offices, a responsibility that he will continue to oversee in his new role. Throughout his career Furia has worked with brands to create or integrate within entertainment, notably at William Morris Agency where he spent over 13 years as an agent helping brands navigate Hollywood. After WMA, Furia ran branded content teams at media agencies including UM and MediaVest and led integrated marketing teams at Maker Studios and Studio71.
ScienceAffinity
ScienceAffinity, a global strategic and creative consultancy established to put science at the heart of branded and unbranded storytelling for all commercial brands that promise health and wellness outcomes, was officially introduced today as part of the MediStrava group from Huntsworth Health.
ScienceAffinity’s international team of strategic, science-driven storytellers is led by Vineet Thapar as its global president. The ScienceAffinity global team is backed by more than 350 scientists, thinkers, artists, strategists, craftspersons, including more than 150 PhDs in the MediStrava network, who specialize in applying science-based approaches with the necessary rigor to solve commercial problems for clients.
The Shipyard
Marketing engineering agency The Shipyard has hired Jelani Gibson as associate strategist and Mwesi Stokes as associate performance media analyst. Both Gibson and Stokes had previously held internships with the agency during their recent spring semester. In addition, The Shipyard has hired two new incoming student interns for the summer: Averi Allison and Richard Dixon. All four individuals are members of Ohio State University’s Black Advertising and Strategic Communication Association (BASCA).
Socialfly
International haircare brand invisibobble has selected Socialfly, a women-founded and led social media and digital marketing agency, as its social media agency of record. Socialfly was tasked with launching the company’s first global social media brand campaign,
Socialfly’s global brand campaign will amplify invisibobble’s social mission of inclusivity and female empowerment through a strategic social media campaign that engages women around the world in a way that genuinely resonates with them.
Standard Media Index
Global advertising intelligence company Standard Media Index (SMI) has appointed advertising analytics executive Rick Bruner as its head of insights and analytics. With more than 20 years of experience leading top research and product teams, Bruner will oversee SMI’s insights and analytics division.
Bruner previously ran research and product teams at DoubleClick, Google, MTV Networks, Marketing Evolution and Viant Technology. Most recently, he served as founder and CEO of Central Control, an advanced media analytics firm where he will continue to serve as chairman.
Vivaldi Group
Independent business and brand transformation firm Vivaldi Group, has appointed innovative consulting leader Chris Halsall as a senior partner. Prior to joining Vivaldi, he was co-founder and COO of Ogilvy Consulting, as well as the leader of its growth and innovation practice.
Halsall began his consulting career at McKinsey & Company, then joined Prophet Brand Strategy as a partner in New York, where he co-authored the book, The Marketing Accountability Imperative.
Wongdoody
Creative agency and global experience and design platform Wongdoody has appointed Jessica Wittebort as its svp of customer experience for North America. Based in New York City, Wittebort will work across a range of sectors to help lead product design.
In her new role, Wittebort will lead the U.S. customer experience design team, as well as the UX principals and the company’s Providence studio, which launched last year.
Prior to joining Wongdoody, Wittebort served as director of design thinking at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she led product design for the center’s division of digital product and informatics. This new position marks her return to Wongdoody, where she had previously served for three years as group director of CX.