Havas London
Havas has announced Xavier Rees as CEO of Havas London. Rees joins from his position as Group Managing Director at adam&eveDDB, a role he has held for the last two years and to which he was promoted after four years at the agency. At Havas, he will report directly into European and UK Group CEO, Chris Hirst. The date of his arrival is still to be confirmed. During his time with adam&eveDDB, Rees helped oversee the merger of DDB and adam&eve, and was the only member of the original DDB leadership to earn a place on the new management team following the merger. Alongside his group managerial duties, Rees runs adam&eveDDB’s Diageo business and Volkswagen; their largest client. Rees is one of a select group to have held top agency positions across advertising, digital and direct disciplines. In his 22 year career, Rees has worked across a number of agencies, including BBH, Grey, Wunderman and Archibald Ingall Stretton.
“Xav is a true powerhouse who can energise and propel an agency forward. As well as being a brilliant practitioner, he will be transformational for our culture” Chris Hirst, European and UK Group CEO at Havas
CP+B LA
CP+B has announced the promotion of Kevin Jones to Chief Creative Officer at CP+B LA. In this new role, Jones will lead the creative department of CP+B’s Los Angeles office and the work created for PayPal, best-selling video game franchise NBA 2K and Charles Schwab. Jones will also head up creative on global work for Infiniti, which is in the process of moving from CP+B Boulder to capitalise on LA’s rich automotive culture and be in closer proximity to the Infiniti Design Center teams. This news follows last week’s promotion of Robin Fitzgerald to Executive Creative Director at CP+B LA. Since 2014, Jones has acted as Executive Creative Director at CP+B LA, leading creative development on the noted 'Be the Story' campaign starring Spike Lee for video game NBA 2K16, which broke franchise sales records and doubled digital revenue over the prior year. Jones also led the winning pitch for the global PayPal account, which resulted in high-profile brand firsts.
“Kevin’s brilliant without being crazy or a prima donna, and he understands exactly what makes great work. We’re currently attempting to clone him” Chuck Porter, Chairman at CP+B
Stinkdigital
Stinkdigital has hired David Navarro as a Creative Director at its New York office. Navarro joins from Amsterdam, where he served as creative director and design director at J. Walter Thompson and Tribal DDB. Prior to that, he spent eleven years running his own award-winning digital studio, Pixelinglife, in his hometown of Valencia, Spain. His talent for designing digital products and experiences has been recognised by Cannes Lions, One Show and Webby Awards. He is part of the judging panel at TheFWA and Awwwards and is a frequent speaker at design conferences like OFFF and FITC. He will partner with ECD Ben Hughes on key New York accounts.
“We’re incredibly excited to welcome David to Stinkdigital New York. He’s incredibly passionate about design craft and pushing the quality of our visual output” Chris Mele, MD at Stinkdigital
DDB Hong Kong
Further strengthening its senior management line-up and ramping up its social-commerce solutions offering, DDB Group Hong Kong has hired Leo Tsui as Head of Tribal Worldwide Hong Kong and Head of Digital for DDB Group Hong Kong. The news comes hot on the heels of Carol Lam’s appointment as Chief Creative Officer and Managing Director for the agency. Reporting directly to Lam, Tsui will further innovate the agency by developing more creative, compelling and comprehensive digital solutions for clients, including a new breed of social-commerce services. Also working closely with Jeff Cheong, President of Tribal Worldwide Asia, Leo will tap into Tribal’s pool of 35 technologists, to provide ‘best in class’ mobile and social commerce solutions for clients. Tsui joins from WPP’s digital network Mirum Hong Kong where he was General Manager. There he evolved the agency’s digital offerings from website and e-commerce into an integrated digital offerings, including mobile, social, tech-led activation and experiential marketing. He has also worked at Gravitas as Strategy Director and at Nielsen Online as Business Manager.
“Leo is a top-notch leader in both the digital marketing and the technology sectors. He will play a vital role in developing a more cohesive and proactive partnership across DDB Group’s digital offering” Carol Lam, CCO and MD at DDB Hong Kong
BBH New York
BBH New York has announced the promotion of Kate Morrison to its Head of Production. Morrison has been with the New York office since 2014, and in her new role will join the New York management team and oversee all production out of the NY office. During her previous roles at BBH NY, Morrison has been an Executive Producer, and most recently Head of Content Production, where she oversaw all film production for the NY office with the goal of making the work as great, dynamic and interesting as possible, helping build the Producers at BBH into the best in the industry. Prior to joining BBH, she worked at TwoFifteenMcCann, Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, and both 180 offices, on brands such as PlayStation, Xbox, Sony and Nike Jordan.
“We put production at the heart of our creative process, and Kate is one of the most creatively driven producers in the industry. We couldn't be more excited about her taking the lead of an already great production department” John Patroulis, BBH New York Creative Chairman
Camp + King
Camp + King has added a pair of talented individuals to its impressive roster, CEO Jamie King announced this week. Kristin Johansen joins the agency as Social Media Manager, a new position. She hails from NYC and began her career working in analytics at WCG, where her clients included P&G and Verizon. She moved on to global communications firm FleishmanHillard, served as the lead research analyst for L'Oreal and spent time freelancing in Brooklyn and the Caribbean. Now, Johansen is swapping her mobile office for a new home in San Francisco. Michael Ng, meanwhile joins the company as Senior Copywriter. Ng moved to New York after graduating from VCU Brandcenter and began freelancing at shops around town, such as Wieden + Kennedy and Johannes Leonardo. Eventually he settled in at The&Partnership (formerly CHI & Partners), where he worked on a diverse roster of clients such as TELUS, Direct Energy, WSJ and Bulleit.
“Kristin has a wonderful ability to execute an overarching social media strategy across multiple channels, and what had me excited about Michael's work was not only the caliber of his thinking but his ability to write in the appropriate voice for each brand” Jamie King, Co-Founder and CEO of Camp + King
Grey Toronto
Michael Houston, Global President of Grey, has announced a new leadership team at Grey Toronto. Darlene Remlinger has been promoted to President of Grey Toronto, and Leah Power has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Grey Canada. Patrick Scissons will continue to oversee Grey Canada as its Chief Creative Officer and share responsibility for the Toronto office with Remlinger, whilst Andrew Carty, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, remains a key member of the executive leadership team, and Neil McPhedran continues in his role as General Manager of Grey Vancouver. The appointments follow the announced April departure of Stephanie Nerlich who has served as President and CEO of Grey Canada during a highly successful five-year tenure in which the agency has doubled in size and emerged as a creative force at home and abroad.
“We are fortunate to have a deep bench of talent in Toronto. Darlene and Patrick are proven leaders who will provide the creativity, energy and counsel our clients expect and deserve” Michael Houston, Global President of Grey
MDC Partners
MDC Partners has announced Stephanie Nerlich as Chief Marketing Officer in Canada, effective in April. She will oversee marketing and business development across all MDC Partners agencies established in Canada and will bring added support to the agencies headquartered in Canada as Managing Director. It is a newly-expanded role designed to maximise growth potential, generate new business momentum and align client needs with respective partner agency core expertise, reporting to Bob Kantor, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, and Andre Coste, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Nerlich joins MDC Partners from Grey Canada, where she was President and CEO for five years. There she led a national network of agencies, expanded Grey Canada's digital capabilities and drove significant new business growth, including winning HSBC North America, Procter & Gamble, Brown Forman, ATCO and Volvo.
“Stephanie has achieved the highest levels of success by taking the helm of an esteemed group of agencies and accelerating them to win an enviable list of clients while creating award-winning work” Bob Kantor, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at MDC Partners
Engage
TBWA has announced that Lauren Niemcewicz has been promoted to Managing Director of Engage, the Chicago-based global performance marketing agency within the TBWA Worldwide network. Niemcewicz succeeds Executive Director Jonathan Ashton, who is leaving the company at the end of March to pursue other interests. Engage specialises in SEO, SEM and data analytics for Konica-Minolta and a major global sports retailer. As part of the TBWA network, Engage has also worked with global network clients GoDaddy, McDonald's and Michelin. In her role as Managing Director, Niemcewicz will report to TBWA\Chiat\Day New York CEO Rob Schwartz, who oversees the business. Niemcewicz was previously Senior Account Manager and leading Client Service and Relations for Engage, where she was responsible for growth and digital strategic vision for a key global sports retail client. Prior to joining Engage, she was Media Director (SEO and SEM) at Perfomics in the US and Canadian offices, where she managed multi-channel digital brand strategies for clients including Kohls, Home Depot, Kia and Microsoft.
“Engage is at the epicentre of the three key dynamics influencing marketers; Data, Technology and Content. Lauren's experience, expertise and energy makes her the perfect leader of this offering” TBWA\Chiat\Day New York CEO Rob Schwartz
Razorfish
Razorfish has announced Marco Bailetti as Vice President of data science. Reporting to Global Chief Intelligence Officer Samih Fadli, Bailetti will be based in Razorfish's Toronto office and will be responsible for deploying rich data and customer insights for clients across core retail, automotive and financial services verticals. Bailetti joins Razorfish most recently from Franklin Templeton Investments, where he led the global client insights team across five countries as vice president of client insights. Prior to that, Bailetti held the role of director and region lead of marketing analytics and search engine optimisation at SapientNitro, which sits alongside Razorfish as part of the Publicis.Sapient digital transformation platform. In this role, Bailetti is credited with growing the firm's marketing analytics and search team from two to forty analysts in seven cities.
