MediaVest has named NORM CHAIT vice president, director of out-of-home services. Chait succeeds NANCY HALE, senior vice president, media director, who is taking a leave from the advertising industry. He is tasked with building MediaVest's out-of-home buying and planning practice. Chait was most recently senior partner, group planning director, at Mindshare's The Wow Factory. While there, he oversaw all strategic planning and buying responsibilities related to non-traditional media for clients including American Express, Unilever, Yahoo!, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Reuters has appointed JANET SCARDINO to executive vice president and global head of marketing for its Media business. She will be responsible for driving the Reuters brand among consumers and news agencies throughout the world. Prior to joining Reuters, she was senior vice president, international marketing for AOL, responsible for all brand and acquisition marketing for AOL's services in 16 countries. Before AOL, Scardino spent three years at the Walt Disney Company as managing director of the Disney Channel in Italy, based in Milan.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has named JAVIER BENITO executive vice president and chief marketing officer for the company. In his new role, Benito will be responsible for all aspects of marketing worldwide. Most recently, he was the U.S. retail division president and chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola North America, where he led a number of successful product launches, including Diet Coke with Lime and Coca-Cola C2. He joined Coke in 1994, and served in a variety of global positions, including division marketing director for central and Eastern Europe, senior vice president of marketing and operations for Brazil, and division president of the Nordic and Baltic division.

Reckitt Benckiser, the U.K. based consumer products company, has named DIANE MCGRATH to the newly created position of head of global licensing. McGrath started her career with Procter & Gamble in Europe, moving on to Disney Consumer Products in France and Sesame Workshop in New York City. In her new capacity, she is responsible for building brand equity and creating revenue streams that incorporate the heritage of such Reckitt Benckiser brands as Lysol, Dettol, Woolite, Calgon, Veet, Vanish, and Air Wick, amongst others, through strategic licensing partnerships.

MARY HENSLEE has joined The Point Group as vice president of customer retention and loyalty. Henslee will lead the agency’s practice area to provide strategic counsel and initiatives that enable clients to proactively maintain and grow their customer relationships.

Keller Crescent Company has promoted LISA DODDRIDGE to assistant media buyer in the media department. In addition, HALEY WARREN has been added as media coordinator in the media department. In her new position, Warren is responsible for the coordination of all daily activities with a variety of national and regional consumer clients, along with assisting business-to-business accounts.

Ryan Partnership has added MICHAEL MAHER as executive vice president, director of client services for Ryan Direct and Ryan Interactive. Maher is responsible for client relationships and managing account teams for the two divisions. Most recently, Maher was senior vice president, director of marketing strategy at Modem Media in Norwalk, Conn.

SHARON E. SMITH has joined TACODA as director of account management. Smith will be responsible for customer satisfaction in all areas of TACODA's Audience Management Services (AMS). Smith comes to TACODA from SEM firm icrossing where she was director of sales and marketing and senior director of business development since 2004.

DONNA QUEISSER has been promoted to account executive at Bader Rutter & Associates in the agency’s relationship marketing group. During the last two years, she has been an assistant account executive on the Dow AgroSciences account.

TONY FORMICHELLI, former sales manager of WOR Radio New York, has joined MediaSpan Group as senior vice president of sales, MediaSpan Online Services. Formichelli will be responsible for driving sales of MediaSpan’s online products and services to local media properties as well as guiding the business development efforts of the MediaSpan Online Services unit.

ROGER SURPRENANT and STEVE UTLEY have joined Virtus Marketing as vice presidents of business development.

BETH FIDOTEN has been promoted to senior vice president, director of print services at Initiative Media. She was part of the team that successfully won the Levitra business.

EUROCLICK LLC has hired KRISTIAN WILSON as vice president of U.S. operations. Prior to joining Euroclick, Wilson served as director of marketing for TrafficMarketplace.com.

Mercury Media has named MARK BIGLOW as director of business development. Biglow will actively engage in acquiring new business. He joins Mercury Media from TMP, where he worked as an account executive, managing clients and selling their services or products.

Beauty & Fashion Channel has named JIM MORRISON as general manager. Morrison will be charged with evolving the channel from a direct response advertising service into a content and commerce channel. Most recently he was president of L’Oreal USA Salon Division.

STEPHEN ANSPACH, chief technology officer, now adds senior vice president operations to his responsibilities and MARY ANN FARRELL has been promoted to senior vice president research at E-Poll. Anspach joined the firm in 2001, where directing all aspects of technology including innovation, strategy, and development. In addition, he now heads up E-Poll operations where he will be in charge of all knowledge management and business intelligence efforts. Farrell joined E-Poll in 2002 from her former post as director, worldwide market research for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

ROBIN SEIDNER D’ELIA has been promoted to senior vice president, national television promotions and marketing for New Line Cinema. Seidner D’Elia oversees promotional partnerships with the broadcast and cable networks, including long-form television specials, talent hosted events and stunts, and interstitial programming on behalf of New Line’s films. Previously, she was vice president, national television promotions and marketing.

Blattner Brunner has promoted DAVID HOGG to management supervisor in the client services department; ANNABELLESHERRY to senior account executive in the client services department; LINDSEYBRAEM to account executive in the client services department; and LYNNDELUCA to traffic specialist in the production/traffic department.

MEG COLUMBIA-WALSH has joined Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve as managing director of the health care and technology practice. In her new position, Columbia-Walsh will direct the global strategy and execution for the consultancy’s pharmaceutical and technology clients. She joins the company from Oracle Corporation where she led the US Life Science and Clinical Consulting Practices. Previously, she served as partner/vice president for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

Starmark International has added STEVEN COTTEN as vice president of consumer markets, a newly created position within the company’s client services team. Prior to joining Starmark, Cotten served as an independent marketing consultant for Walgreen’s where he devised an overall merchandising plan and retail strategy tying in holiday schedules to push sales and announce new product launches.

Southwest Media Group (SMG) has promoted three senior media buyers to the position of group buying director, as well as two planning associates to planning director. The new group buying directors are CAROLINE CROCKER, MELISSA WOLF, and KELLY FLETCHER. The two planning directors are KURT SCHWEITZER and CANDI MENVILLE. Each planning director has been assigned specific accounts and will be responsible for overseeing all day-to-day activities. The group buying directors will manage a group of media buyers.

JOHNNA WOOLEY has joined REVShare as a media buyer from EuroRSCG 4D DRTV. She will play a major role in the expansion of the broadcast station effort. EDWINA WEBSTER joins REVShare from XO Communications as media representative. Her responsibilities with XO Communications included the management of the entire customer base of San Diego. Webster will focus on "non-traditional" platforms to test the performance of CPA Advertising across new mediums. Lastly, CHELLE LEWIS has been promoted from media assistant to media representative. Lewis will also focus on new upstart networks and other "non-traditional" platforms to execute and grow the REVShare CPA model.

Zipatoni hired ED SEVERINI as vice president, senior creative director and STEVE KLINK as creative director in the agency’s Chicago office. Severini is responsible for running the Zipatoni Chicago creative department, where his clients include Motorola, Uni-ball, eBay, Maytag, and AOL. Prior to joining Zipatoni, Klink was an executive creative director at KK&A Integrated Retail Marketing, where he built and established the creative and production departments.

BOB HANNA, co-founder and senior vice president of sales at BURST! Media has been named to the BPA Worldwide - I/PRO interactive advisory committee.

SABRINA SANCHEZ-AYALA has been promoted to vice president, sales and marketing, at CABLEready. She was previously director of program marketing and Latin programming specialist.