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Movings/Shakings: 3 November

Business leaders

Sydney- and Auckland-based global search firm, Hourigan International, has appointed Natasja Barclay (pictured left) as managing partner and Gillian Gibson (centre) as leadership consultant in the Auckland office. 

Barclay joined Hourigan International as a leadership consultant in 2014 and quickly established a strong track record assisting New Zealand-based companies to attract talent with the ability to grow businesses through creative leadership. Prior to joining Hourigan International, Barclay worked in account management positions for several major ad agencies in New Zealand, including Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB and WhybinTBWA.  

New recruit, Gibson, has a strong background as an HR director of large corporates—Skycity, Telecom and Lion among others—in New Zealand and Australia and has more recently consulted in business coaching and leadership development for leading Kiwi companies.

Hourigan International chair Roger MacDonnell (a former chief executive and founding partner of Colenso BBDO and a current director at Image Centre Group and TVNZ – pictured right) welcomed the arrival of the new staff members, as did the company’s chief executive Anthony Hourigan.

“Natasja is a rockstar,” Hourigan said. “I’m very excited to have someone of her calibre drive the business in New Zealand. She epitomises creative leadership. Also, I’m absolutely rapt that Gillian has joined us. She has been a standout consultant in the market and provides new complementary services to our search work. Now, we can strengthen our partnerships with clients with leadership training, re-structuring advice, coaching and development and importantly, helping develop a winning culture.”

Hourigan International already works with major clients Spark, NZME, Icebreaker, Tourism NZ and Lotto NZ, and Barclay outlined aspirations for further growth. 

“The most important word in business today is change,” said Barclay. “Finding the right entrepreneurial talent to drive this change is the key to our success. We look really hard for people who can make a difference, who have the right chemistry, who relentlessly pursue revenue growth with innovative and creative thinking.”

Giving a little, a lot

The first step in a transition to move the management of Givealittle within Spark has been initiated with the appointment of Tom Beyer as chief giving officer. 

While Givealittle is owned by Spark Foundation, until now the management has been undertaken by an external team led by Givealittle’s founder Nathalie Whitaker.
 
The foundation’s chair Sir Bob Harvey says when the foundation acquired Givealittle three years ago, it was always planned to move the operations in-house, but it was important to let the platform grow and develop to a point of maturity before the shift took place.
 
“Givealittle is now at that point and we believe that transitioning the operations within Spark is the best move to ensure a strong and sustainable future for the platform,” says Harvey.
 
“Nathalie and her team have done an incredible job helping Spark ensure the success and growth of Givealittle and Tom will ensure Givealittle continues to be a powerful asset to all New Zealanders.”
 
Beyer has had more than 14 years of experience in the e-commerce field, transforming more traditional businesses to online models and taking established online channels and working to future proof them to ensure growth.
 
He says he’s enjoyed working on cutting edge technology projects in his previous roles, including managing Spark’s stake in the Semble project, but the opportunity to head up Givealittle within Spark is a real privilege as it’s a role that also aligns with his personal values.
 
“Every day many New Zealanders are facing real need,” he says. “The fact that I’ll be working on a platform that aims to facilitate those needs being met is the most exciting thing about taking on this role. This transition fits perfectly with Spark’s move to being a more digitally led organisation. It’s an awesome opportunity to develop Givealittle so that it continues to be a best practice crowdfunding platform, helping New Zealanders achieve their dreams and raise funds for those in need.” 
 
Since the Spark Foundation purchased Givealittle, monthly donations having risen from around $50,000 to $1.4 million. In the last financial year $19 million was donated through Givealittle – two and a half times the prior year’s $7.4 million.

Inside scoop

MediaWorks has appointed Kylie Freeman as an internal communications specialist.

Freeman joined the media company in October having previously served as a communications specialist at Callaghan Innovation between January 2014 and September 2015. 

She previously also held communications roles at Kiwibank and the Ministry of Justice in the United Kingdom. 

Freeman’s new role will however be slightly different to those she held previously, in that she will be required to communicate information to those within MediaWorks. 

Asked why this appointment has been made, MediaWorks group head of communications Charlotte McLaughlan said it was an important role given that MediaWorks employs over 1,000 people across the business.   

Moving up the production ranks

After a busy six months as managing director and executive producer, Corey Esse has appointed Michael Hilliard as executive producer and partner and has promoted Luke Mazzaferro to creative development.

Hilliard’s credits include this year’s Emmy-nominated Chef’s Table for Netflix, Awesome; I… Shot That! for the Beastie Boys and Oscilloscope, Fast Cars and Superstars for the ABC (US), The Poker Star for Network 10 and OneHD, as well as branded entertainment projects including Kobe Bryant’s Disciples for Nike China and CCTV5, executive producer Robert Redford’s Iconoclasts for Sundance Channel, The Art of Walking for Tourism Victoria, the international Emmy-nominated The Great Crusade for Qantas and New Zealand Tourism, and most recently Unstoppable for Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain.

Mazzaferro’s Credits include Australian Indy film Red Hill, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, Ian Thorpe: The Swimmer for Screen Australia and the ABC, Lion’s Six Beers of Separation for Toohey’s Extra Dry – nominated for outstanding achievement in Reality Television by the DGA, the YouTube smash-hit Signs for Mojo and Schweppes, and most recently The Expendables 3, where he worked closely with Patrick Hughes, Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Harrison Ford while on location in Sofia. 

Finch founder, Rob Galluzzo says: “This is a natural evolution for us. It’s great to be able to say that Finch won the first-ever Cannes Gold Lion for Branded Entertainment, and now with Corey on board as managing director, Michael and Luke will focus their energy and attention on long-form storytelling and special projects for brands. Michael will continue to actively produce, as well as developing original projects with Luke and the rest of the Finch team.”

Federation gets a sister (agency)

Indy agency Federation has announced the launch of specialist content marketing and PR agency, Hubbub.

According to a release, “Hubbub will create, distribute and promote high-quality content that is useful, interesting, compelling and timely – not a hard sell. It will use PR and social media to amplify content reach and effectiveness”.

The new standalone company will be led by managing partner Tony Mangan, a senior communications professional who recently returned to New Zealand after almost a decade working at top PR and content marketing agencies in London. In that time, he directed high-impact campaigns for some of the world’s best-known brands, such as Microsoft, Visa, Samsung and Experian.  


 
Commenting on the launch, Federation founder Henderson says: “With Hubbub, we have a sister agency to Federation that will provide strategic content marketing based on global best practice. It will also enable us to optimise client marketing campaigns to a whole new level. We’re very excited to have Tony, with his unique international experience, leading the charge. He’s already won a number of new clients.”
 
Content marketing is a growth industry. Analysts at PQ Media project that global revenues will increase at a 15 percent compound annual growth rate for the rest of the decade, and generate more than US$313 billion in 2019.

Mangan says: “Content marketing is on the rise because, when done right, it’s a highly effective way for brands to cut through the clutter, build an audience, and win and retain their business. Hubbub is dedicated to helping organisations in New Zealand, Australia and further afield to do just that. The world is awash with content and audiences are fragmented, but good stories, told well, can achieve spectacular results. The keys to success include a strong strategy and plan that maps to the target audience’s needs and preferences, a great creative platform, software tools to monitor, interact and evaluate, and getting as much positive coverage on earned media as possible.”

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