TAREK AYNTRAZI, Middle East chief executive of Starcom Group, is moving to a newly created role, effective April 1. Ayntrazi will be chief operating officer for Starcom Central Western and Eastern Europe, a region that includes France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary.
Yahoo! has promoted VINCE MESSINA to entertainment sales category development officer. Messina will develop and lead the go-to-market strategy for media sales in the theatrical, home video, TV, and game industries for the entire Yahoo! network. Additionally, Messina will oversee advertising sales and develop strategies for business growth in the entertainment category. Messina joined Yahoo! in 2002.
KEN BEACH has rejoined Ziff Davis Media as senior vice president of corporate sales. He was most recently senior vice president, national accounts for Primedia’s International Automotive Group. Beach will be responsible for corporate accounts, new business development, and creating integrated marketing programs across all of the company’s print, online, and event offerings.
Copywriter ERIK FAHRENKOPF and art director ANTHONY DECAROLIS have joined dng (davidandgoliath) from Deustch/Los Angeles. Prior to working at Deutsch, the team worked at DeVito/Verdi in New York.
ELIZABETH SEMPLE has been named vice president of human resources at Eyeblaster and RICK ARONSTEIN has joined the company’s product group as director of product marketing. Before joining Eyeblaster, Aronstein worked for AOL overseeing all product marketing for the portal’s entertainment services and held product management roles at Lycos and AltaVista Search.
USA WEEKEND Magazine has promoted ROB HARRISON to senior vice president of advertising, and BETTE ANN YARUS has been named vice president of market development. Harrison will now oversee USA WEEKEND's sales offices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Harrison has been with the magazine for eight years, most recently as vice president of advertising for New York sales. Yarus is responsible for developing strategic alliances and marketing programs, and will oversee brand marketing and sales training. She has been with the magazine since 2002 as vice president of advertising for the Midwest and West Coast.
PRIMEDIA has promoted BRAD J. GERBER to the post of AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE publisher. Gerber was most recently the national account manager for PRIMEDIA's Performance Automotive Group, where he was responsible for key accounts across 40 titles.
RICH RUSSEY has joined Sports Illustrated as publishing director. Russey will oversee the advertising sales operations of the following properties: SI Golf Plus and SI Adventure; Sports Illustrated on Campus; SI Presents; and SI Latino. Russey comes to SI from the Fortune Group, where he was part of the management team for the past nine years. Most recently, he was the Eastern advertising director for Fortune and Fortune Small Business.
24/7 Real Media has named MATT KAIN as senior vice president of the North American search division. Kain will oversee the entire North American staff of 24/7 Search. He comes to 24/7 from serving as general manager of Decide Interactive, the search engine marketing firm acquired by 24/7 Real Media in August 2004.
JUDITH HAMERMAN joins ALL YOU magazine as Eastern ad manager. She started her career in print buying for Miramax.
ANDY IOANNOU has joined DayPort as vice president business development, broadcast solutions. He will serve on the company's senior management committee and expand DayPort's Broadcast Solutions business worldwide.
High Voltage Interactive has named CANDISE MILLER as vice president of business development and MICAH ARNOLD as media manager.
Discovery Networks, U.S. has tapped ROBERT VOLTAGGIO as vice president, advertising sales revenue and planning. He joins Discovery from AMC Networks, where he served as vice president, pricing and planning for AMC and Women’s Entertainment. Among other responsibilities at Discovery, Voltaggio makes pricing decisions on upfront and scatter business, manages the inventory portfolio for Discovery’s 14 U.S. networks and forecasts revenue for the company.
Gemstone Communications Inc. has added two new account executives to its advertising sales team. ANASTASIA (STACY) DELLAS and MARIUS ISIDORE will both focus their efforts on the senior and Jewish publication divisions, SPMG and J Media.
CMD has hired BRAD DUNSHEE as an account supervisor in the account servicesdepartment. Dunshee will be responsible for supervising one of CMD’s technology accounts. His duties will include directing creative projects and contributing to client strategies.
The VIA Group has named KAREN WISNIEWSKI as an account supervisor and TRACI BERGAN as a media supervisor. Prior to joining VIA, Bergan was a multinational media planner for Universal McCann, McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco.
Boulanger & Associates has named MARK PEDRELLI as director of direct and Internet marketing. In this new position, Pedrelli will be responsible for implementing all integrated marketing programs for the agency’s clients.
JOAN RITTER has joined Slack Barshinger as vice president of direct and relationship marketing. Ritter returns to the agency world after two years as director of marketing and product development for DM2-DecisionMaker Media Management, a provider of business-to-business response lists and a subsidiary of Reed Business Information.
NEIL CHASE, who has been an editor in online journalism for a decade, will join NYTimes.com as deputy editor for news. Chase joins the company from MarketWatch.com in San Francisco where for the past five years he has led a team of roughly 50 journalists in nine bureaus covering business news.
HOWARD KATZ, the former president of ABC Sports who has served as the chief operating officer of NFL Films for the past two years, has been named the NFL’s new senior vice president of media operations, a newly developed position. Katz will continue to be the chief operating officer of NFL Films. His added responsibilities will include oversight of the NFL’s playing schedule and managing the operations of NFL Network.
The J. Brown Agency has named SUSAN ARDITI senior vice president, director of client development.Arditi will be responsible for helping guide creative and account groups to build client business.
St. Jacques Marketing has appointed JENNIFER LOBIANCO as client services director. LoBianco is responsible for the management of client relationships. Most recently, she held the position of director of marketing at CheapTickets.com, part of Cendant.
Concrete Pictures has named MICHELE TOTI LEACH as executive producer.
PRIMEDIA Enterprises has promoted JACK WESTERKAMP from senior manager to director, product development.
The Golf Channel has made a series of changes to its sales organization. JOHN DONNELLY has been named regional vice president of Eastern sales, responsible for spearheading the network’s non-endemic sponsorship efforts in the Northeast United States. JEFF FOSTER was named to manager director of Golf Sponsorship, giving him added responsibilities of managing accounts with golf equipment manufacturers, travel and tourism organizations, and new media sales for golf sponsorships. Joining the Orlando sales team is THERESA MCCANN who will serve as director of strategic partnerships, focusing specifically on the travel industry. Lastly, DAVID DESMOND has been named to director of sales/golf sponsorships, and MIKE PINCKES has joined The Golf Channel as account manager, golf sponsorships.
Ryan Partnership has promoted MAURA PRIEM to vice president in the agency’s Chicago office. Priem works on the agency’s S.C. Johnson business. She joined Ryan in 2002 and most recently held the position of managing director. In addition, the agency promoted KEVIN WEISBERG to managing director in the agency’s Chicago office. Weisberg joined Ryan in 2003 as an account director, working on Dove.
iMedia Communications has added NEIL PERRY as vice president of Market Intelligence. Perry will oversee iMedia Reports, a series of studies on subjects relevant to the interactive marketing world. In addition, he will develop the new iMedia Video Magazine, a television-quality news series released on DVD that explore topics of critical importance to marketers. Prior to joining iMedia, Perry was president of Neil Perry Associates Inc., a marketing consulting firm.
