MediaAlpha hires two new executives as the programmatic platform expands into  verticals including health insurance, life insurance, Medicare and travel. Brett Tabano joins as senior vice president of marketing to spearhead the company’s marketing and communications efforts across all channels. Robert Perine is named head of product to enhance its platform and help advertisers maximize the impact of their campaigns and return on ad spends. Both Tabano and Perine depart OpenX, where Tabano served as senior vice president of global marketing and Perine led marketplace quality initiatives.

DigitasLBi has expanded the role of chief media officer Clint Simpson, who will now also serve as managing director of the agency’s New York and Atlanta offices. Clients include American Express, Comcast and Delta. Simpson is taking over for Laurent Ezekiel who is transitioning to president, North America and international. This expanded role also follows new business media wins like Lyft, Under Armour, Mattel, and Polaris.  

Cheil Worldwide has a new CEO: Jeongkeun Yoo. He succeeds Daiki Lim who abruptly resigned earlier this week. The Seoul-based firm did not provide any explanation for the resignation of Lim, who had been with the company since 1981 and in the CEO seat since 2012. Yoo is also a long-time veteran of the agency and was most recently executive vice president. Cheil is perhaps best known for its work with Samsung although in recent years it has made further inroads into the U.S. market with acquisitions including Barbarian Group and McKinney.  

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is restructuring its London office by adding Helen James as managing director and Dan Watts as chief creative officer. In these new roles, they will assume leadership of the 60-person London office, whose current clients include Infiniti, PayPal, Hotels.com, CoppaFeel, American Airlines, Argos, BetStars, ABInbev, Letgo, National Army Museum and Royal Society for Blind Children. “We’ve had some ups and downs in London – that’s not unusual when you export an agency culture around the globe," stated Chuck Porter, chairman, CP+B, referencing recent leadership changes that included the departures of UK international chief executive officer Richard …

FCB Mayo is appointing Jorgelina Díaz as its new general creative director. In her new role, Díaz will become Peru’s first woman to lead a creative network agency. The 70-person shop's roster of clients includes Clorox, Levi's, and Air Canada. Díaz will work closely with FCB Mayo’s leadership and creative teams to enhance the agency’s digital transformation, guiding creative and innovation strategy for all of the agency’s clients. She reports directly to Ricardo Ortiz, executive vice president of FCB Mayo, part of Interpublic Group. Díaz previously served as ECD at Nodos Digital and spent time at Publiquest, a marketing technology …

Joe Staples is headed to California as he becomes partner, executive creative director of Mother's year-old Los Angeles office. As the shop's first ECD, he will be responsible for leading all creative coming out of the office. Prior to joining Mother, he was executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy’s Portland, OR office, where he oversaw the advertising, technology, and design for brands such as Nike, Coca Cola, Old Spice, Chrysler, and Weight Watchers.    

Grey is appointing Dan Bennett to the newly created role of worldwide chief innovation officer to oversee the agency's digital agenda globally.  This marks one of worldwide CEO Michael Houston’s first major appointments since assuming the leadership of Grey in August.  Bennett will be based at Grey's New York office. He previously worked at McCann Worldgroup North America where he has served as chief digital officer for the past two years.  

Influencer marketing platform Obviously has tapped Dennis Gesumaria as vice president of sales and business development.    Prior to Obviously, Gesumaria was co-founder and executive vice president of business development  and e-commerce for Aerify Media, a media buying company which was acquired by Sizmek in 2014. At Sizmek, Gesumaria led sales for the buy-side media platform’s programmatic and mobile, AI-driven digital advertising. Obviously has executed global influencer campaigns for companies such as Google, Sephora, Coca-Cola along with up and coming brands in fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle.

Facebook Creative Shop global leader Desmond LaVelle is joining New Orleans-based Peter Mayer as vice president, executive creative director to oversee the ad agency's creative, studio and development departments. He will report to chief creative officer Josh Mayer. As to why he was interested in joining a mid-sized agency in New Orleans from a global giant like Facebook, LaVelle states the agency's "perfect" size, history and client roster enables him "to make a difference in the creative world." And, "the City of New Orleans is a big cultural draw that inspires my creative passion."

Kevin Roe has been hired by branded content and social marketing services specialist Fullscreen as senior vice president of Client Services. He will work out of Fullscreen’s Austin office, reporting to General Manager Pete Stein. In his previous role at Razorfish as a group vice president, Roe is credited with growing revenues at the Publicis Groupe agency’s Austin office 25% over three years.  In his new role Roe will lead client services across all partners and service groups within Fullscreen's brand group.  In 2013 WPP Digital participated in an estimated $30 million funding round for Fullscreen that was led by …