People on the Move
Wednesday, November 20, 2002

  • Leo Burnett Worldwide's Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, MICHAEL CONRAD, will retire at the end of the year. Deputy Chief Creative Officer Miguel Angel Furones will succeed Conrad. Conrad will stay on as a yet-to-be-defined consultant to the agency. The agency will abolish the post of Deputy Chief Creative.

  • America Online has hired LISA BROWN, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of USA Electronic Commerce Solutions, as Executive Vice President, Interactive Marketing. In the newly created post, Brown will identify new marketing opportunities for the Dulles, Va.-based Internet unit of AOL Time Warner. As President and CEO of USA Electronic Commerce Solutions, Brown oversaw such services as online store design and development, merchandising, marketing, customer care, warehousing and fulfillment for clients.

  • America Online Inc. laid off about 90 people from its advertising sales force yesterday as senior officials prepared to present a strategy to overhaul the struggling online unit to AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Board of Directors tomorrow. Before the cuts, AOL employed about 600 people in ad sales. The layoffs, primarily affecting employees at the online unit's Dulles headquarters and in New York, involve those who sell ads for display to users in individual cities or regions. The duties of the local ad force will be shifted to others in the ad sales division, known as the Interactive Marketing Group, sources said. That division cut about 100 employees earlier this year.

  • 24/7 Real Media has added five executives to its management team. ARI BLUMAN, most recently SVP of Sales at NowMarketing in New York since August 2001, has joined as Vice President of Direct Solutions. Bluman previously worked at 24/7 as VP, Direct Marketing, Inside Sales and E-mail Brokerage, and as an Account Executive from 1997-2001. JEROME FITZGIBBONS has been hired as VP of Site Acquisition and Inventory Control. He previously was SVP of Sales at Vivendi/Universal's GetMusic.com, where he oversaw all sales functions for advertising and content syndication for the new media and e-commerce startup since 1999. VICTOR GOLIO, former EVP of Sales at Next Jump in New York since March 2001, has joined as VP of East Coast Sales. Like Bluman, Golio is also a returnee to 24/7, having worked as VP, Director of Sales from 1998-2000. During that time, he managed the sales of national ad space on major Web sites and oversaw 13 offices nationwide. DERRICK HORNER has come on board as SVP and Associate General Counsel. Previously, he was VP and General Counsel since 2000 at Dallas-based Source Media, a company that provided an interactive program guide for i-TV and streaming media content. Lastly: DAVID PERLMAN, who has been hired as Director of Engineering, most recently was VP of Engineering for a year at SkyFire Technolgies, a North Billerica, Mass.-based wireless middleware company.

  • Arnold McGrath Chairman PAT MCGRATH is expected to retire by the end of the year, executives close to the agency said. His departure follows Procter & Gamble Co.'s realignment of its advertising agency roster that cost his agency several brands.

  • TOM TOUCHET has been named Executive Producer of NBC's Today Show, where he will oversee all aspects of the show. Touchet spent more than five years at ABC's competing morning show, Good Morning America. Most recently, he served as Senior Producer for ABC News Development. From 1990 to 1995, he was with Fox, where he produced news programming. He replaces Jonathan Wald who the network had asked to step down in mid-October.

  • DraftWorldwide, the global integrated marketing agency, made several new hires and promotions in its Chicago and New York offices. DraftWorldwide Chicago has hired ARNEL KASMALLY, as Vice President, Account Director. Kasmally joins DraftWorldwide from Foote Cone & Belding, Chicago, where he was Vice President, Account Director. DraftWorldwide New York has hired PATRICIA BERRY, as Senior Vice President, Group Director, Strategic Planning and Research and LESLIE FOLEY-MCDONALD, as Senior Vice President, Account Director. Berry joins DraftWorldwide from Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York, where she was Executive Vice President, Planning Director. McDonald joins DraftWorldwide from Dirty Water Integrated, New York, where she was Management Director/Partner.

  • JENNIFER M. GONZALEZ has been named Account Supervisor for Suarez/Frommer & Associates, the Pasadena, CA-based Latino-focused integrated communications agency. Gonzalez most recently served as Senior Editor at Ask Jeeves, Inc., contributing to the Internet company's outreach efforts in the Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanic market. A native of Mexico City, she previously edited IPI Magazine, a Mexican publication covering youth culture and music across Latin America, and was project manager for Lucent Technologies' Mexico City-based Global Translations Organization.

  • FINDWHAT.COM, a developer and provider of performance-based marketing services for the Internet, announced the hiring of DAN BALLISTER as Vice President of Sales. Prior to joining FindWhat.com, Ballister served as the Vice President of Sales at Go2Net, Inc.

  • DEBBIE RICHMAN, Director of National Television at the Media Agency OMD, was promoted to U.S. Director of National TV Buying. The position is a new one and assumes some of the duties of Dan Rank, the OMD Managing Partner who oversaw all broadcast buying and who is leaving to run ad sales for USA Network and its sister channels. Richman joined OMD in 1997 and in her most recent post, handled national TV buying for McDonald's, Clorox, Universal and Hershey, among other clients.

  • LYN ANDREWS will become President, Advertising Sales, for The Weather Channel. In her most recent role, she was President, Consumer Health for WebMD. Andrews also served as President of ABC Radio Networks from 1997 to 2000. Prior to that, she functioned as Senior VP, Advertising Sales and Marketing for the same organization.

  • The Board of Directors of Gravitas International announced the appointment of JAMES RILEY, former President and COO of AdCritic.com, as the new President and CEO of Gravitas International Inc. Riley's appointment replaces the CEO capacity previously held by Larry Shaben, who remains Chairman of the Board. Riley has also assumed the position of President of Gravitas Digital Communications Inc., a position previously held by founder Kevin Hayden

  • Tacoda Systems Inc., an enterprise software company that helps online publishers grow their advertising and transactional revenues by profiling and targeting the most valuable segments of their audiences, announced that ROBERT TAS has joined the company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, a newly created position. Tas comes to Tacoda from the software firm CapitalThinking, Inc. where he was Chief Customer Officer/Executive Vice President responsible for the management of all field operations working with clients such as Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Royal Bank of Canada, Nomura, Credit Lyonnais, and Citigroup.

  • Interpublic Group is hiring MARK WILMOT to run its estimated $300 million Burger King account. Wilmot is currently an EVP, Management Director at D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in New York where he runs the Norelco account. He began running Burger King's regional field marketing account at D'Arcy early this year, but the agency lost the business in the summer to Deutsch/LA.

  • JEANNETTE McCLENNAN, President of OgilvyInteractive North America, is taking a personal leave starting this week. Carla Hendra, President of OgilvyOne North America, said that she will assume oversight and management of OgilvyInteractive in McClennan's absence. Hendra has also asked Jan Leth, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyInteractive North America, to take McClennan's seat on OgilvyOne and OgilvyInteractive's seven-person executive team. It is unknown if or when McClennan, who joined OgilvyInteractive in 1999 from i-shop Organic, will return to the New York-based interactive arm of Ogilvy & Mather. Hendra said there are no plans to replace her.

  • Advertising, Boelter & Lincoln also announced the recent addition of GRACE BRISCOE. Briscoe joins the company as a Media Planner/Buyer. In Milwaukee, she has worked in broadcast sales at WPNT-FM and as a Media Planner/Buyer at Creative/Suit & Tighe in Brookfield. As a Media Planner/Buyer at AB&L Briscoe will service a variety of accounts including Dells Festivals, the City of Galena, Wisconsin State Fair, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Packer Country Regional Tourism office, among others.

  • The Milwaukee office of Advertising, Boelter & Lincoln announced the recent addition of HEIDI HALPERIN to its media department. A recent graduate of Marquette University's College of Communications and Journalism, Halperin will work as a Media Traffic Coordinator, helping to manage both broadcast and print accounts.

  • CHEY HAHN joins Fastclick.com as Account Manager. Hahn comes to Fastclick after three years with ValueClick as an Account Executive specializing in retail advertisers.

  • SEAN FINN was named VP of Business Development at Fastclick.com, an online ad network reaching over 60 million monthly unique Internet users. Sean comes to Fastclick after positions in sales and bus dev at Ads360.com, Adsmart/Engage and AdPepper.

  • Money magazine President DAVID KIESELSTEIN is taking a new position as President of Time Inc. Parenting Group, filling the vacancy left by Andy Sareyan, who recently moved to Entertainment Weekly. A Time Inc. spokesman confirmed that Chris Poleway, currently president of the Fortune Group, will take on the added responsiblities of the Money Group, which includes Money magazine and its CNN/Money.com partnership. Kieselstein had been at Money since 1999 and previously ran the consumer marketing and new ventures group at Fortune.

  • The American Advertising Federation (AAF) has inducted LINDA DE JESÚS, President of The Bravo Group, into the Advertising Hall of Achievement. De Jesús, together with six other inductees, was honored at a luncheon at the Waldolf-Astoria in New York City. The Advertising Hall of Achievement recognizes industry professionals age 40 and younger who are making a significant impact on the industry through their leadership, career achievements and personal inspirational qualities.

  • Rodale Inc., the world’s leading publisher of information on healthy, active lifestyles, announced that SCOTT MEYER has been named Editor of OG magazine (formerly Organic Gardening). Meyer was most recently New Media Manager for Rodale’s Organic Living Group. Meyer most recently served as New Media Manager for OrganicGardening.com and OrganicStyle.com overseeing content, marketing and development.

  • AdServer announced the appointment of SHAYNE MIHALKA as General Manager of the ASP based ad serving company. He will be responsible for all aspects of the newly formed business unit. Shayne was promoted from within the company, formerly filling the role of VP of Business Development for Fastclick.com. Prior to joining Fastclick, Mihalka was the VP of Network Development at ValueClick.

  • MARK WILMOT joins Interpublic as Client Management Director for all Burger King-related business. Currently Executive Vice President and Management Director at Publicis Groupe-owned D'Arcy, Wilmot previously ran the fast-food chain's field marketing account before Burger King shifted those duties to Interpublic's Deutsch, Los Angeles.

  • Gaylord Entertainment announced that MARK FIORAVANTI has been named Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Fioravanti, joined the company earlier this year as Vice President of Marketing. He joins Gaylord from Harrah's Entertainment, where he spent the past nine years, and was most recently with Harrah's New Orleans as Vice President of Finance and Administration. His other roles included Corporate Director of Strategic Planning and Director of Marketing, Planning and Strategy.

  • Over 250 jobs and possibly as many as 500 may be at stake as a new facility begins operation in Wilmington, Del. in January. So far, at least 15 people have been let go at Golf Digest Cos., one of seven magazine companies owned by Newhouse and his brother Donald through their parent company, Advance Publications Inc. The head-rolling was contained in a "warn letter" that the company was required to file with the Department of Labor in Connecticut. Other cuts are expected at Parade, the big money-making Sunday magazine inserted into newspapers; at Fairchild, publisher of W, Details and Jane; and at Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Most of the cutbacks are related to the company's pending move to the new shared services facility in Wilmington, Del. For the first time, back-office personnel in areas such as accounting, benefits, human resources and information technology for all the corporation's magazine divisions will be combined under one roof. The cutbacks are expected to reach into the hundreds by early next year. Wilmington officials have said that there will 250 jobs created at the site there when the facility is fully operational early next year. The project is going to start staffing up in January, said a company spokeswoman. Presumably, that means that there are a lot more cutbacks to come from sites in the New York City area as the move date approaches.

  • AcquireWeb, Inc., a leader in e-Mail Address Appending, e-Mail Change of Address (ECOA) and Reverse e-Mail Append expands its staff with the addition of RICHARD SLATER as Vice President. An active member of the Association for Interactive Marketing (AIM), The Direct Marketing Association, and a leading figure in the e-mail append industry, Slater brings his exacting standards for e-privacy, append quality and customer service to the already highly principled values established at AcquireWeb. During his extensive career he has been the Publisher of eShopping Magazine, Director of Special Projects with The Larkin Group/Advanstar and Vice President of Slater Publications and Expositions.

  • Landor Associates, a leading brand strategy and design consultancy, has appointed HAYES ROTH, Vice President of Marketing, to Vice President, Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, effective immediately. Hayes has 30 years of broad-based advertising and marketing communications experience. Hayes is a frequent lecturer for The Advertising Education Foundation, The Conference Board, Cornell University, Columbia Business School, New York University's Stern School of Business and at conferences and colleges around the world.