The Shipyard has appointed Kate Canel as the agency's first director of performance media to lead all strategic programmatic planning initiatives and oversee the agency’s integration of digital advertising technologies.  Canel brings more than 10 years of experience in global marketing and digital media strategy, including her most recent agency position as vice president, U.S., Multicultural and Latin America at Eikon Digital.

New York-based creative agency Johannes Leonardo has appointed Samira Ansari as group creative director.  She is tasked with leading creative teams across the agency’s client base, including MassMutual, Amazon, EA Sports, and The Bezos Family Foundation. Previously Ansari was group creative director at Grey New York where she oversaw the Bose, Pringles, and Marriott accounts globally. Earlier she was creative director for JWT New York. The 20-plus year creative veteran has also served at Saatchi and Saatchi Paris, TBWA\Chiat, and Leo Burnett.

Madwell is appointing ad industry veteran Dan Tucker as the agency's first chief financial officer to support high-level business decision making, manage profitability, and expand internal financial systems for the agency. Most recently, Tucker served as the general manager of Anchin’s Outsourced Accounting Services practice. Earlier he held management roles at WPP, BBH, and Mother.

DDB San Francisco is adding two new roles on its leadership team. Chris Toffoli departs BSSP to join as design director/creative director to work across all brands, on new business, and will be helping to build a design team at the agency. Oliver Frank, ex-R/GA, is named group creative director to work across a variety of clients with a special focus on global brands and new business, as well as to help manage and shape the creative department as it continues to grow. Both report to executive creative director Ben Wolan. 

Wunderman Thompson (WT) is appointing Lindsey Gonnella as group strategy director. Working alongside Greg McConnell, business director, and Lulu Laudon, chief strategy officer, WT New York, Gonnella will lead strategy for the Rolex portfolio. J. Walter Thompson, which merged with Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson, has held the account for 73 years. Gonnella previously served as senior vice president, group strategy director at BBDO NY.

Vice's creative agency Virtue has promoted Cameron Farrelly from executive creative director to the newly created role of chief creative officer, North America. He will be tasked with overseeing the agency's Brooklyn headquarters as well as its offices in Los Angeles and Canada. Farrelly joined Virtue in 2016 and is credited with helping the agency's Brooklyn office bring in 20 new clients last year.     

Firstborn is kicking off 2019 with a round of senior promotions across the creative, production and client services teams. Alex Krawitz is upped from senior vice president, content development to the newly added SVP, managing director; Emily Khalil is elevated from director of production to vice president of production. Ana Breton is promoted from program director to vice president of client services; Jeremy Elliot has been promoted from associate creative director to creative director, while art director Jessica Tainsh will become associate creative director.  

M&C Saatchi has promoted Mark Newnes to deputy managing director. Newnes, an eight-year veteran of the agency was previously managing partner, leading both the NatWest and Royal Mail accounts along with broader agency-wide responsibilities. Newnes will report to managing director Tom Firth. The agency added the role, citing growth and a new leadership team structure. Newnes’ promotion is the latest in a series of changes at the agency’s senior leadership team including the appointment of Raquel Chicourel as chief strategy officer and Kate Bosomworth taking the role of CMO.  

Mesh is promoting Brady DeRoche from brand manager to the newly created role of business development director.   Before joining Mesh in early 2017 DeRoche was a creative strategist and business development manager at Octagon Media.

Sito Mobile promotes Matt Murphy from vice president, product marketing to the newly created role of senior vice president, channel partnerships as the mobile data tech firm seeks to expand its channel/reseller program. In his role, Murphy will also identify additional partnership opportunities and directly manage client relationships.