Droga5 London hired Chris Watling as the agency's first head of production. He joins the agency, following a 10-year stint at BBH London working on campaigns for Axe, The Guardian, Weetabix, British Airways, Audi and Barnados. In 2015, Watling was named managing director for BBH's in-house studio, Black Sheep Studios. He helped establish the new production unit and broaden the agency's creative output, working on music videos for The Last Shadow Puppets and the short film "Home," starring Jack O'Connell. In his new role, Watling will lead delivery across the agency's client roster, which includes Vita Coco, Hobbs and Unilever.

Barkley hired Kyle Jones as group creative director in charge on the Applebee's account. Jones joins the agency from Venables Bell in San Francisco, where he worked on Audi and Reebok. He's well-known as the group creative director at TraceyLocke who helped create the Simpsons Kwik-e-Marts for 7-Eleven, when 7-Elevens became Kwik-e-Marts to promote The Simpsons Movie. Prior to Venables Bell, Jones worked on the Microsoft, Dominos, and Kraft accounts at CP + B. "Kyle has a lot of experience convincing big, seemingly traditional clients to do innovative, creative work," said Jason Elm, executive creative director at Barkley. "Coming up …

VML Chicago hired Sean Burns as executive creative director. Burns joins the agency from FCB Chicago, where he worked as a senior vice president, creative director, on brands like Kmart, MillerCoors, Hillshire, Cox Cable and Janssen. Prior to FCB, he was a vice president, creative director at Grey New York. Burns helped memorable work for Kmart, including "Ship Your Pants" and "Jingle Joes." He will serve alongside current managing director and executive creative director, Jeremy Schutte. In addition, Erik Peterson has been hired as North American director, optimization and acquisition. For more than 20 years, Peterson has consulted in the …

Erik Vervroegen joins TBWA\Chiat\Day New York as executive creative director, and will serve as global head of art for TBWA\Worldwide. This marks a return to TBWA for Vervroegen, who launched his career at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris and later led the agency's Paris office as president and executive creative director. Most recently, he was worldwide chief creative officer for Publicis Worldwide. While there, Vervroegen oversaw the creative within the holding company's network of agencies throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America, including the global creative work for Ray-Ban. Prior to Publicis, he was executive creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, …

Elisa Silva joined SS+K as director of client services to oversee the agency's brand roster and account management team. She will partner with chief creative officer Bobby Hirschfeld and focus on talent management and department collaboration. After several years in production, Silva moved to the agency side at Wieden+Kennedy's WK12. She also spent time at 72andSunny LA, JWT, Translation and most recently Barton F. Graf. Silva will report to Kate Rothen, who was recently promoted to chief operating officer. Rothen has been a partner with the agency for several years and previously served as head of account services and director …

Taptica opened an office in Seoul, South Korea to be led by Hoon Lee as general manager.

Splashlight named Gilles Rousseau as senior vice president of sales and marketing and Chris Smart as senior vice president of operations.

London-based business consultancy, BrandCap, is launching a new practice in New York. David Martin will serve as chairman of the new office.

Assembly hired Kendra Mazey as managing partner, Detroit.

Ace Metrix hired Jamie Warner as vice president, business development.