People on the Move
Tuesday, January 21, 2003

  • Euro RSCG Worldwide, Europe announced this week that KATE ROBERTSON has been appointed Executive Vice President, Euro RSCG Europe. Dividing her time between London and Paris, Robertson will work closely with all Euro RSCG network operations to manage the strategic development and implementation of the network's European new business efforts. Formerly Chief Marketing Officer at D'Arcy Group Europe Middle East and Africa, Robertson has also served as Founder and CEO at Scholz & Friends London, a full-service marketing and communications agency, where she directed all multinational business and operations, including the acquisition and integration of multiple companies. She has also held the positions of Executive Director of Business Development at Bates Europe and Bates UK, where she successfully pitched Compaq, Europcar, Jamont, Owens Corning, Pharmacia and Upjohn; as well as senior roles at J. Walter Thompson Europe, handling the Kellogg and Unilever brands.

  • Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi today announced the overhaul of some of its key U.S. management positions in New York and Los Angeles. First, KEVIN ROBERTS, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO and Publicis Groupe's Brand Navigator for Procter & Gamble Co., adds the title of Chairman and will take a more prominent role in the New York office.

  • Joining Roberts in New York will be SCOTT GILBERT a Saatchi veteran who ran Saatchi's biggest office, the 300-person Torrance, CA, shop that handles Toyota Motor Sales USA's Toyota division. Gilbert will oversee the New York office's operations. He becomes one of four managing partners of that office, down from six.

  • Meanwhile, in the Southern California Saatchi office, several key players on the Toyota account were shifted. They include the relocation of MARIANNE BESS, formerly National Group Account Director, to Sydney, Australia, where she becomes General Manager of Saatchi & Saatchi's Toyota account. She will be replaced in Torrance by TIM MURPHY, formerly Director of Retail Divison. MIKE SLAGTER, formerly Regional Development Director, is promoted to Retail Division Director and will head the Toyota Dealers Association field team.

  • Northlich, Cincinnati, this week promoted two executives to President. RICK MILLER, formerly Director of Integrated Services, becomes Agency President. JEFF DUFRESNE, formerly Director of Northlich's BrandStorm brand and new-product consulting unit, becomes President of that unit.

  • Less than a month after being named Burger King Corp.'s new Chief Executive, Bradley Blum named ROBERT T. NILSEN President. Nilsen was Chief Operating Officer of Yum Brand's Taco Bell Corp., where he was part of a turnaround team for that brand. He joins Burger King Feb. 3. Before joining Taco Bell in early 2000, Nilsen spent 12 years with Tricon International (Yum Brands' previous name), leading operations for Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut in Australia/New Zealand, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa.

  • Viacom Vice President and General Manager STEVE MAULDIN has moved to Dallas, where he has been named President and General Manager of Viacom's Dallas/Fort-Worth duopoly. Mauldin will also oversee Viacom's Austin, Texas, CBS station, KEYE, and its Oklahoma City UPN station, KAUT. In Miami, Mauldin was in charge of a Viacom "triopoly," having held the position of VP and GM of WFOR, UPN station WBFS and West Palm Beach UPN station WTVX.

  • RICHARD PARSONS, who only a year ago shared co-billing as AOL Time Warner's Chief Operating Officer with the company's then-heir apparent, Bob Pittman, this week became the media giant's first Chairman-CEO. Parsons' appointment, which the board reached unanimously, is effective May 16, the day of the company's annual shareholder meeting.

  • Wolff Olins, a brand consultancy part of the Omnicom Group, has announced three new hires in the United States. MICHELLE DOLL, formerly of Enterprise IG and Landor, was appointed Account Director. Two new designers were also appointed: ANDREW WILSON, previously at Corporate Edge in the UK, and HENRICUS KUSBIANTORO, formerly of Chermayeff and Geismar Inc.

  • SABMiller recently announced a new president-CEO for its struggling North American Miller Brewing Co. following the resignation of Miller President John Bowlin. NORMAN ADAMI, currently Chairman-Managing Director of South African Breweries Ltd., will take over for Bowlin, who is resigning effective Feb. 1. Adami has been with SAB for 20 years, leading the South African brewing operations for nine years.

  • ANDREA MERGENTIME has joined PROMAX/BDA in a newly created position as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Client Relations. Mergentime has spent the bulk of her career (1993-1999) supervising new business development and marketing communication activity at New York-based Lee Hunt Associates, the branding agency that served as the agency of record for PBS, launched MSNBC and won major assignments from Lifetime, NBC and the Disney channel.

  • Prime Point Media, the national payphone advertising network, announced two additions to its sales team. JANEEN WASOSKI has been hired as Account Executive. Wasoski brings more than six years of sales experience to Prime Point Media, including Account Manager roles at ABCNEWS.COM and WEATHER.COM.

  • JAKE KOVALCIK was also hired by Prime Point as Senior Account Executive. Kovalcik’s agency experience includes media planning at Ogilvy & Mather and Deutsch. After Deutsch, he served as an Account Executive at Anheuser-Busch and was most recently a Senior Account Executive at DVC Worldwide on the Rolling Rock/Labatt USA account.

  • JOHN RUSSO and BOB NELSON, former Senior Creative Executives at Publicis Groupe's D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, are reuniting with the agency's former Chief Creative Officer, Lee Garfinkel, at the New York office of Omnicom Group's DDB Worldwide. Garfinkel last month was named DDB's Chairman-Chief Creative Officer. Russo, Executive Creative Director at D'Arcy, becomes Co-Executive Creative Director (with John Staffen) at DDB, New York. Nelson, D'Arcy's Managing Director for global creative services, becomes Director for Broadcast Production, a vacant post at DDB, New York.

  • PAUL MURRAY is hired as Vice President Client Relations at CFM Direct, a national response-marketing agency. Murray possesses more than twenty years of relevant marketing experience, working both at agencies and on the client side. Most recently he was Vice President, Product Marketing at Equifax. Murray also held executive-level positions at First Card and Citicorp Diners Club.

  • LIN TV Corp. this week named SCOTT BLUMENTHAL and EDWARD MUNSON Regional Vice Presidents of LIN Television Corporation. Also, JEFF WHITE was named Station Manager of WISH-TV in Indianapolis, IN and DAVID ROGERS Station Manager of WAVY-TV, in Norfolk, Virginia. Scott Blumenthal joined LIN TV and WAVY in 1991 as General Sales Manager and was later promoted to Vice President and General Manager. Jeff White began his broadcasting career as a radio account executive at WLNZ in Lansing Michigan. He later made the move to LIN TV and WOOD as an account executive in 1986. White joined WISH as an account executive in 1989. He was promoted to National Sales Manager in 1994, Local Sales Manager in 1995 and General Sales Manager in 1998. David Rogers began his career as a buyer and media planner for Redmond, Amundson & Rice Advertising, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He spent five years in television advertising sales as an account executive at WVEC and WYAH in Norfolk before moving to LIN TV and WAVY.

  • Advertisement Banners.com, an interactive advertising company, this week announced the appointment of ROY LUNA as Chief Financial Officer. Luna has more than 30 years experience in corporate financial operations, and will expand AB’s existing financial strategies, financing efforts and growth plans.

  • The New York Times announced this week that RICHARD WOOLDRIDGE, President and COO of The International Herald Tribune (IHT), will assume the business leadership of the IHT effective immediately. Wooldridge was named President and Chief Operating Officer of the IHT in 1998 after having served as Consultant since 1996.

  • Meredith Corporation this week announced that LINDA HALLAM has been named Editor-In-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications Decorating and Design Group. For the last year Hallam has served as Senior Interior Design Editor for Traditional Home magazine. Before that, she spent five years as a design editor with Better Homes and Gardens Books.

  • Digitas has added two of its senior executives in the U.S. to its operation in Europe as a part of its overseas growth strategy. CHIP REINGOLD and RUTH SREENAN have joined the London office as SVP, Executive Creative Director, and SVP, Technology, respectively. Reingold will oversee creative for clients such as Ericsson, Saab Europe and Pernod Ricard, as well as new business. He has been with Digitas for 14 years, most recently as Group Creative Director in Boston on the American Electric Power, Delta Air Lines and Celebrity Cruises accounts. Sreenan will develop the technology practice in Europe into one that is focused on marketing infrastructure. Previously, she was a leader in Digitas' New York technology group, where she led teams responsible for developing strategy, architecture, code and related technical documentation for clients like American Express, Morgan Stanley and Ann Taylor. Before Digitas, Sreenan spent two years at Accenture in New York as a technology lead in its financial services practice.

  • American Urban Radio Networks has promoted BASIL L. MURRAIN to Vice President, Marketing and Promotion. A 17-year veteran in marketing and media, Murrain's career began in trade relations with Tradewell Industries and with Broadcast Marketing Corp., two advertising agencies that specialized in media buying and barter relations.

  • With over ten years of experience in the consumer magazine ad sales field, MICHELLE BALAZ has been promoted to Midwest Ad Director of Biography Magazine. In her new position, she will oversee the Detroit and Chicago offices, including all accounts for those regions. Previously, she served as Midwest Manager for Premiere and George Magazines (1999-2000). Prior to that, she was Ad Sales Representative for Parade (‘97-’99).