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Movings/Shakings: 24 February

Musical chairs

FCB Media has announced a flurry of leadership promotions and a new recruit this week.

Terri Collier, Blair Alexander, Anne Lipsham and Emily Isle

The new-look FCB leadership team includes the promotion of former media director Blair Alexander to general manager of planning, which sees him taking responsibility for developing the agency’s channel and implementation planning product. He’s been with the agency for eight years.

Alongside him, Terri Collier has been promoted from media director to general manager of investment and operations, which sees her take responsibility for the agency’s approach to media investment and technology-enabled operations. She’s also been with the agency for eight years.

Concluding the promotions, former communication planning director Anne Lipsham is now the head of strategy. In the role, she will lead and oversee strategy and insight utilising the agency’s suite of local and global insight and planning tools, as well as leverage skills and expertise within the wider FCB integrated strategy team including Data, CX and CRM strategy.

And complementing the internal promotions is the recruitment of globally awarded digital media leader Emily Isle to the new role of general manager of digital within FCB Media.

Joining from Starcom New York, Isle brings with her unique experience across communications planning through to digital media operations, investment and strategy.

Most recently she has driven global programmatic innovation, and recognised with Global Festival of Media gold and silver awards across programmatic search and mobile. She was also the lead digital strategist behind the Cannes Lion gold winning ‘Oscar Selfie’ for Samsung. In the new role, she will oversee the media agency’s growing digital operations across brand, programmatic, social, search, data and analytics.

Commenting on the appointments, managing director of FCB Media Rufus Chuter said: “These roles set us up to continue to evolve our offering, leveraging new tools and technologies alongside our brilliant talent to drive positive business results. Our senior leadership team at FCB Media is arguably the strongest in NZ so it’s great to be able to recognise talent from within as well as complement with global talent of Emily’s calibre. Together they’ll make a formidable team.”

A duo of hires

MediaWorks’ direct sales team has a new head of acquisition and national media strategist following the appointments of Mark Smith and Sam Walsh, respectively.

As the national media strategist, Smith will look for additional revenue streams for the company and use his experience across media sales, content generation and multi-channel communications for clients. 

His career spans 20 years at both MediaWorks and NZME, initially in radio before expanding to include all media channels in recent years.

Commenting on Smith’s appointment, chief commercial officer Glen Kyne said: “We are genuinely excited to have Mark return home, and bring his valuable experience, network and deep knowledge of media back to MediaWorks and support our teams.”

Meanwhile, Walsh’s role of national media strategist will see him be responsible for managing a number of national direct and agency clients. The role includes providing advice around the use of the many and varied MediaWorks’ platforms, brands and talent, and assisting clients in developing strategy through to execution.

Walsh has more than 15 years of media sales and content experience, with previous roles including account director at NZME and both account manager and technical producer at The Radio Network.

MediaWorks head of national direct sales Dan Dalton said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have Sam join our team. He is highly regarded as an effective, knowledgeable and experienced operator with a fantastic track record of delivering results for clients – and is a great addition to the 25-54 audience company.”

Walsh’s appointment is effective from the end of February.

Building the team

News and current affairs site Newsroom.co.nz has welcomed a few high profile contributing writers to tackle subjects from technology to sports to movies.

The 12 editorial staff in Auckland and four in Wellington will focus on news reporting and analysis. Their work will also be supplemented by contractors with deep expertise in their fields.

Top row: (L-R) Richard MacManus, Lester Levy, Darren Bevan
Bottom row: (L-R) Suzanne McFadden, Rod Oram, Jim Kayes

The contributors include:

  • Richard MacManus—the founder of ReadWriteWeb—on technology,
  • Lester Levy—leading director and visiting professor at the University of Auckland—on leadership,
  • Darren Bevan—longtime movie critic—on the screen industry and movies,
  • Suzanne McFadden—leading sports and magazine writer—on innovation and sports,
  • Rod Oram—prominent business commentator—hosting a regular video interview with business chiefs and academics,
  • Jim Kayes—freelance sports journalist, former TV3 presenter and reporter—on the national sport, rugby.

The site will launch next month. It’s is currently also on the hunt for a commercial executive

A promising trio

Publicis Communications has announced a few changes to its key leadership team in the local and Australian market.

Michael Rebelo has been appointed CEO for Publicis Communications ANZ, fulfilling the job alongside his responsibilities as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and New Zealand. 

He will report to Global Chief Operating Officer, Loris Nold, and will focus on driving transformation and ensuring that global and local clients are given full access to the Groupe’s expertise, talents and resources across Publicis Communications. 

Alongside him, Andrew Baxter has been appointed as chairman of Publicis Communications in addition to his current responsibility as CEO of Publicis Worldwide. He also reports to Nold and along with continuing to drive growth for clients, will focus on collaboration with other Publicis Groupe solutions hub, including Sapient Inside and the ramping up of Prodigious. 

And taking on the newly created position of CEO for Leo Burnett Australia is Melinda Geertz. In the role, she will work closely with Rebelo to continue to grow the agency across Australia and ensure the right connectivity between the Melbourne and Sydney operations, led by Pete Bosilkovski. 

About the new appointments, Publicis Communications global CEO Arthur Sadoun said: “Australia and New Zealand are key markets for Publicis Communications; these appointments will allow us to further harness the Power of One to deliver to all of our clients seamless end-to-end solutions that draw on our world-class expertise and resources, no matter where they may be located. I know I can count on Mike, Andrew, Melinda and the teams to accelerate on the great momentum they’ve already been building through the recent wins of Tiger Beer global, H&R Block, Caltex, Spirit of Tasmania and Betfair, to name just a few.” 

An addition to the list

Photoplay has announced the signing of internationally renowned director Lance Kelleher.

Returning to Australia from time spent living and working in the United States and across Europe, Photoplay is representing him in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. 

Kelleher’s portfolio includes campaigns for Jaguar, Canon, Renault Global, Lexus, Jim Beam, Qantas, Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, IKEA, BMW, Heineken, Sony and Samsung. And over the years, he’s accrued creative awards at major international shows such as Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Clios and New York Festivals.

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