Tuesday, May 10, 2005
SARITA SMITH has been promoted to the position of senior vice president, research and planning for Discovery Networks, U.S. Smith oversees all research activities for Discovery's U.S. Networks, supporting programming, marketing, communications and affiliate sales divisions, and works with management to develop consumer-based strategies to grow Discovery's U.S. audiences. Smith most recently served as vice president of research and planning for Discovery Networks, U.S., responsible for all programming and marketing research for TLC, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids Channel and iMedia.
St. John & Partners Advertising & Public Relations recently added three employees at the agency's Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters. KIM SCOVILLE joins the media department as media planner for the shop's Clearwire, Cornerstone, Hogan Assessment Systems, Terrell Hogan, and Vistakon accounts. DANIELLE MCFARLAND joins the agency's media department as a media planning assistant. She will assist the media planner on the agency's Clearwire account. MARC SUSZYNSKI comes to St. John & Partners' media department as a media planning assistant. He will assist the media planners on the agency's Clearwire, Cornerstone, Terrell Hogan and Vistakon accounts.
DENISE GUNDZIK has joined Bader Rutter & Associates as an assistant media planner/buyer in the agency's media group. Prior to joining Bader Rutter, Gundzik worked as a closing/escrow agent for Metropolitan Title Company.
JUDY HSIEH has been promoted to senior director, business development for BusinessWeek Online. Hsieh will be charged with working with partners to drive traffic growth and new revenue opportunities. Previously, Hsieh was director, business development.
Kanoodle has named KENNETH J. HALL to chief financial officer. Previously Hall was executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Mercator Software.
MSNBC.com has added CATHERINE CAPTAIN to its leadership team. Captain will drive all Marketing functions within the company including Advertising, Public Relations, Consumer Research, and User Experience. She joins the MSNBC.com team from USA Today, where she served as director of marketing research.
MOKSHA FITZGIBBONS has been named advertising director of Stuff magazine. Fitzgibbons will be responsible for managing the magazine's national ad sales staff. Fitzgibbons joins the magazine from Complex where he previously served as eastern manager since 2002.
KEN ZASKY has been named president of StarLink Worldwide, a full-service media agency unit of Starcom MediaVest Group. Zasky previously acted as StarLink's EVP/chief operating officer. Zasky replaces SCOTT NESLUND, who has left the agency.
SFGT, Philadelphia, has hired MELISSA MARTELL as strategic planner. Previously, Martell was partner and planner at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where she worked across all IBM corporate and product brands.
Horizon Media has promoted KIMBERLY HAYNES-PETERSON to VP, account group head, STACEY MIZRACH to manager of the Promotions Group and CHRIS WIEBKE to account executive in the NY Account Group. MELISSA WHITCOMB has also joined the firm's New York Planning Department as a media planner. Haynes-Peterson came to Horizon in April 2004 from Initiative Media in NY where she was account director, primarily servicing the America Online account. Mizrach began her career at Horizon as an assistant buyer in the Radio group in December 2002 then switched into the promotions group as a promotions coordinator in August 2003. Wiebke started his media career at Independent Media Services as an assistant media planner and he also held a position as a sales executive at Xuppa.com. Whitcomb comes to Horizon from Agency 212 (formerly Ziccardi Partners Frierson Mee) where she was most recently a media planner working on the Loews Hotels, Reader's Digest, Ballantine Books and Warnaco accounts.
TBWA announces the formation of a new group structure for the west coast, TBWACalifornia. LEE CLOW and ROBERT LEPLAE will lead the TBWACalifornia group. LePlae, currently president of TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, assumes the new position of president and chief executive officer for TBWACalifornia. CARISA BIANCHI, currently chief strategic officer for TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, succeeds LePlae as president of TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles.
Discovery Networks has named MICHELE SOLOMON as marketing director for Discovery Solutions, the division dedicated to large-scale, cross-platform advertising sales partnerships. Solomon joins Discovery from the NBA in New York, where she served as senior marketing manager.
imc2 has hired NIHIRIKA SHAH, BETH KUYKENDALL and MIKE GRAZIANO. Shah, client services' account director, will lead strategy development for ecommerce clients. Shah served as director of product management for Toys "R" Us, Inc., responsible for BabiesRUs.com and SportsRUs.com. Kuykendall, vice president of database marketing, will work with retail clients to implement more targeted, customized communications programs across company channels. Graziano is responsible for identifying retail opportunities and aligning client needs with company solutions.
Nurun inc. has named PARIZAD MOTIWALA as senior vice president - client services, North America. Motiwala will oversee all the operations of Nurun in New York City. She will be responsible for managing executive-level client relationships for all local clients. Prior to joining Nurun, she was vice president, client principal at IconNicholson.
GOLF Magazine has promoted RON MULLIKEN to advertising director. Previously, he served as Northeastern manager. In his new role, Mulliken will oversee the publication's ad sales efforts nationwide. Prior to joining the magazine, Mulliken was executive sales director of LastMinuteTravel.com.
MATTHEW DAMRON has joined Source Marketing Inc. as senior vice president and group director, a new position. Most recently, Damron was senior vice president and group director at McCann Relationship Marketing in New York.
PAUL RAGLAND has joined DayPort as director of national accounts. Ragland will develop new business opportunities.
MPG has appointed SUZIE WARNER as global director of marketing. She joins MPG after a three-year stint with WPP's Burson-Marsteller. She will be based in MPG's London office.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia named LIZ KOMAN to the post of vice president, advertising sales. Koman will be responsible for spearheading the sales effort in support of all Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia television programs, including the new daytime series, Martha, launching September 2005. Most recently, Koman was senior vice president, general sales manager for AMC (American Movie Classics) and WE: Women's Entertainment.
National youth media and marketing agency Campus Media Group Inc. has opened a Plano, Texas, area sales office. CHRIS TOBIAS, former director of affinity sales & marketing for Vanguard Car Rental has been tapped to oversee youth marketing campaigns for CMG's Plano area office.
WebMD Health appointed LEE HOFFMAN to the new position of vice president, pharmaceutical agency sales. Hoffman joins WebMD Health from AJInteractice, a division of Ask Jeeves, Inc., where he was vice president, East coast sales.
Carton Donofrio Partners has named former MindShare senior partner SHARON GALLACHER to vice president, director of media services. In her new role, Gallacher will oversee media strategy, measurement, buying and planning for clients in the consumer, business-to-business, higher education and technology practice areas. At Mindshare she managed all aspects of international media for the IBM International account and lead a global team of media directors based in London, Sydney, Toronto and New York.
SIRIUS Satellite Radio has hired two regional advertising directors and one New York account manager to expand its advertising sales efforts on its non-music channels. MARK KALLEN joins as Western regional sales director; STEPHEN SCHEU joins as Midwest regional sales director, and KEVIN ZOBACK joins as New York account manager. Kallen was most recently vice president of sales for Infinity Radio Sales. Scheu was most recently national sales manager for Infinity's WCKG- FM/Chicago. Previously, Zoback developed customized sales and marketing strategies for national advertisers, agencies and clients at Disney/ABC Inc.
Mediaedge:cia has created three new managing director roles and the chief operating officer position at its London-based global client management division, Worldwide Client Services and Solutions (WCSS) to take on current client responsibilities. EAMONN STORE has joined Mediaedge:cia from Starcom in one of the three managing director roles. SCOTT SMITH has been appointed to take on the COO role and will be joining Mediaedge:cia from Modem Media. Managing partners FRANCES O'NEIL and CAROLINE FOSTER KENNY were promoted to managing directors. Also, Mediaedge:cia (MEC) has named NATHALIE ALFRED as partner, marketing and communications. Formerly manager of marketing for MEC, Alfred will join MEC's department of business development, spearheading the company's creative marketing and corporate communications efforts.
MARISA FARINA has been promoted to publisher of Time Out New York. Fariña was previously associate publisher of marketing. She replaces ALISON TOCCI who was recently promoted to president and group publisher of Time Out North America.
McCann Erickson San Francisco (McCannSF) has hired five executives in conjunction with its expanding Microsoft relationship and recent new business. Joining the agency are SCOTT DUCHON and GEOFF EDWARDS as group creative directors, working on Xbox. Prior to McCann, they were both ACD's at TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, working on Adidas, Fox Sports Net, Ask Jeeves and Playstation. GERALD LEWIS joins as group creative director from Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where he served as ACD on IBM, Yahoo! and Motorola, among others. CHRIS TOLAND joins as group creative director from Fallon/West Wing in Los Angeles, where he was senior art director on Amazon.com, BMW and United Airlines. Lastly, MIKE HARRIS comes on board as strategy director, Xbox. Harris joins from TBWA/Chiat/Day, where he was director of strategy for the agency working on all accounts and new business.
While interviews are being conducted for an editorial director to oversee Budget Living Media's magazine, book and syndication properties, ALEX BHATTACHARJI was promoted to editor, up from executive editor. Founding editor SARAH GRAY MILLER recently resigned from the magazine. Bhattacharji joined Budget Living as part of its original launch team in July 2002.
