Mezzina Brown & Partners announced today that MARK MORRISSEY has been promoted to chief executive officer of the agency. Morrissey was formerly chief operating officer of the company. Morrissey joined Mezzina Brown & Partners from Young & Rubicam, where he was vice president, account services. Morrissey oversaw such blue-chip brands as AT&T, Manufacturers Hanover (now JP Morgan Chase) and RJR Nabisco.

MPG (Media Planning Group), Havas’ media agency has named CYNTHIA MACHATA as svp, group account director. Machata will be responsible for leading an account team. Prior to joining MPG, Machata worked for 12 years for the MediaEdge:cia/Young & Rubicam in the San Francisco office as svp, group media director. Machata also held positions at Grey Advertising, Lintas and Wells, Rich & Greene. At MPG Media Contacts, JENNIFER BERGHOLT has been named an online media supervisor for the San Francisco office. Before joining MPG, Jennifer worked as a media planner for i-traffic.

GUNNAR WILMOT, most recently SVP, Planning and Business Development at Interpublic Group, is joining the Lowe Plus Draft management team as chief operating officer As COO of Lowe Plus Draft, Wilmot will identify operating efficiencies and opportunities, and help lead management and growth initiatives currently underway.

PAOLA VECCHIOLLA has joined Tacoda Systems as Strategic Accounts Manager. Vecchiolla will introduce the company's flagship Audience Management System to media, entertainment and financial companies. Vecchiolla comes to Tacoda from Groove Networks, where from March 2001 to March 2003, she was a Senior Account Executive.

RYAN SMITH has joined the creative team at Arnold Worldwide-St. Louis as Art Director, to work on advertising for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and other consumer brands. Smith previously worked at D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles (DDBB) and then Rogers Townsend in St. Louis, gaining national and international recognition for clients such as Whiskas cat food and Circus Flora.

BRIAN CROOKS has joined Ryan Partnership’s Ryan Interactive group as Creative Director, replacing RICK LAVOIE. Crooks joins Ryan from Agency.com, where he served as a creative director, group creative head for its Boston office for 3 years.

Critical Mass announced that ROBERT MORRIS has joined the company’s Chicago office as Vice President, Consulting. Morris previously served as a Vice President, Client Partner in the Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods practice at Scient, where he was responsible for General Electric’s direct to consumer online initiatives. Before joining iXL/Scient, Morris was CEO of the Inmar Group.

Salon Media Group announced the appointment of GEORGE HIRSCH to its Board of Directors. Hirsch replaces BRIAN DOUGHERTY. Hirsch, a magazine publisher for thirty-four years, is currently Worldwide Publisher Emeritus of Runner's World magazine at Rodale Inc.

Findwhat.com announced the promotion of JOHN MORAN to vice president of operations. Moran’s responsibilities will include ensuring the execution of current operations, and the successful implementation of new initiatives.

Bankrate.com has hired DREW WEISBERGER in the newly created position of Advertising Executive - New Markets. Weisberger was previously an Account Executive at Phase 2 Media and FX Cable and a media buyer at Zenith Media.