fbpx

Movings/Shakings: 5 March

Marketing appointment

Rideshare platform Ola has announced the appointment of Andrew Balint to chief marketing officer for Australia and New Zealand. Balint’s hire is to support Ola’s growth across its ten locations throughout Australia and New Zealand. 

With more than 20 years of marketing leadership experience, Balint brings with him a diversified set of skills, having worked in telecommunications, media, aviation, fintech, e-commerce and tech startups. In his most recent role at Amaysim, he took the business from start-up to number four in the market in just four years and became chief commercial officer at the telco’s IPO in 2015.

Balint says his new role at Ola is an exciting opportunity. 

“Digital is in my DNA and I plan to bring this passion to the company, along with my expertise in transformational marketing, to rive entrepreneurial thinking and embed the customer at the heart of every part of the business.”

Ola launched in Perth in February 2018 and launched in New Zealand in late last year, across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 

Morning Report replacement 

Political journalist Corin Dann is set to replace Guyon Espiner on RNZ’s Morning Report in May. He will join co-host Susie Ferguson to present the news programme which attracts an audience of more than 450,000 listeners on weekdays.  

The move will mark a return to RNZ for Dann, who was a political and economics reporter for six years at Radio New Zealand before moving into television. His first role at TVNZ was as the network’s business presenter and more recently he has presented current affairs show Q+A.

Dann says he’s looking forward to returning to RNZ, where he started his career in journalism 20 years ago. 

Morning Report is an incredible institution of broadcasting journalism, with an amazing record of holding decision-makers to account. I’m especially pleased at the prospect of working with such a world-class broadcaster as Susie Ferguson. I think we’ll make a formidable team. Despite a fast-paced media world Morning Report remains a benchmark for agenda- setting news in this country and again I’m thrilled to be a part of the team.”

Guyon Espiner is ending his five-year run on the show to take up a new role focused on long-form investigative reporting across RNZ platforms. 

RNZ head of news and digital Glen Scanlon says Dunn’s appointment is exciting for the RNZ team as well as the show’s listeners. 

“Corin brings a great range of multimedia skills and journalistic nous which will help ensure not only that Morning Report continues to be the nation’s go-to for news at the start of the day, but he will also help it grow in new ways.” 

Executive director announced

WPP’s Government and Public Sector Practice has appointed Michael Harris as executive director, Australia and New Zealand. Harris will be based in Sydney and replaces Kathryn Cooper who has returned to the United States. 

In his role as executive director ANZ, Harris will continue to draw on WPP specialist agencies to build bespoke, horizontal teams for federal, state and local governments. 

Harris says he has been part of WPP for many years and is thrilled to move into his new role. 

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity of working more closely with governments in both Australia and New Zealand to help deliver great access to best practice case studies and thought leadership from around the world, as well as a broader platform for sharing learnings from our region.”

Harris previously worked as client lead at Wavemaker and has more than 30 years of advertising experience gained across media and creative. He has extensive government experience and in 2012, was appointed by the Australian Minister of Health to the Queensland Government Health Reform Strategic Advisory Committee overseeing the largest reforms to the health system in the state. 

About Author

Avatar photo

One of the talented StopPress Team of Content Producers made this post happen.

Comments are closed.