• by January 10, 2006

Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners has named Barry Lowenthal, who served as the agency's media director in the 1990s, as the new president of its media operation, the Media Kitchen. He also takes the title of managing partner.

Lowenthal rejoins Kirshenbaum from Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, where he worked as media director on accounts including Levi Strauss, ING Direct, Gold Toe, and SUV Safety for the last four-and-a-half years. Prior to that assignment he served at Media Contacts--the interactive unit of MPG, part of holding company Havas.

"I like to think I spent my formative years at Kirshenbaum Bond, and it's very gratifying to be coming home," Lowenthal said of his previous stint at the agency, which lasted from 1992-2000.

Lowenthal replaces Paul Woolmington, the former chairman-CEO of Media Kitchen, who left the company last month to become a founding partner of the New York startup office of Naked Communications, a U.K.-based marketing services company.

Not only was Woolmington's title at Media Kitchen weightier than Lowenthal's, but he was also a more high-profile figure in the media industry. An agency veteran, Woolmington frequently contributed to various trade publications (including MediaPost's own Media magazine) and was a familiar face at a variety of industry conferences, where he often gave presentations and participated in panel discussions.

When asked about his plans for the Media Kitchen, Lowenthal said he thought the 40-person unit was already operating smoothly and successfully.

"First I have to see how things are going, but the Media Kitchen is a great brand and there's not a whole lot that needs to be fixed," he said. "It just needs to be led." His appointment is effective February 1, and he will report to agency co-founders and co-chairmen Jon Bond and Richard Kirshenbaum.

At the same time, the agency also announced the promotion of Charles Pinkerton to partner/director of client services at The Media Kitchen. In this new role, Charles will work with Barry Lowenthal on business development and client management. Charles joined The Media Kitchen in 2002 as group media director. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president of interactive marketing and media at The Martin Agency.

In an unrelated development, the agency also announced Monday the launch of WhiteSpace, a marketing strategy lab. The new unit is dedicated to developing cross-disciplinary strategic solutions for a variety of marketing problems, the agency said. It will be led by managing partners Domenico Vitale and Aaron Reitkopf and partner Joe Doucet.

Bond called WhiteSpace "a perfect blend of business understanding, brand understanding, and design that will result in innovative approaches to marketing" and will strive to help clients differentiate brands by addressing issues such as ROI, brand equity, strategic targeting, brand positioning, trend analysis, idea generation, and visual design.