People on the Move
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

  • MATT SCHECKNER, president and CEO of Empire Sports & Entertainment, joined Yahoo! to lead various trade marketing initiatives including events, sponsorships and advertising. Scheckner also will continue in his role as executive director of Advertising Week 2006. He will be responsible for execution of the third annual Advertising Week.


  • ALLISON PAGE has been named vice president, primetime programming for Food Network. Page will oversee the network's primetime shows including Behind the Bash with Giada De Laurentiis, Tasty Travels, hosted by Rachael Ray, Food Network Challenge, as well as network programming stunts. She previously served as director of programming at Food Network.


  • LINDA SHINER has been promoted to editor of Air & Space/Smithsonianmagazine, up from executive editor.


  • ePrize has hired BRYON MORSE as vice president of business development for the company’s Chicago office. Prior to joining ePrize, Morse served as director of sales and business development at Go2Call.com.


  • The New York office of Universal McCann has named CHERYL JEAN CLAUDE, SVP, managing director to initially oversee media planning on the US Army account and later expand her role to other clients. Before joining UM, Jean Claude spent more than four years at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners as group director for the Media Kitchen. In addition, GARY BARSKY joins the agency as SVP, group media director, responsible for managing the US Army’s media planning activities. Barsky was previously group media director at Lowe Worldwide where he spent 18 years working on accounts such as Perdue Farms, MassMutual Financial Services, Ricoh Copiers, Smokey Bones Restaurants and Unilever Foods.


  • JOSH WEINBERG has been named director of communications for Discovery Channel and the Science Channel, where he will develop strategy and oversee publicity campaigns for the network’s programming and its executives. Most recently, Weinberg served as a public relations specialist for newsPRos, where he oversaw the DC office.


  • MICHAEL SHERWOOD has accepted a national sales position with Bayard Advertising. Most recently, Sherwood worked for BSA Advertising.


  • DM2-DecisionMaker has named MARY MILLER senior marketing manager.


  • NEIL ROMAINE has joined the Watauga Group as strategic marketing director.


  • CAREY WITMER has been promoted to associate publisher, advertising for Better Homes and Gardensmagazine. Witmer has been with Meredith since 1998 and most recently served as publisher of Country Home magazine.


  • JAY FRESHWATER has been named sales director of The Weather Channel Interactive, overseeing the company's Chicago sales office. Freshwater will manage sales efforts for weather.com, Desktop Weather by The Weather Channel and The Weather Channel Mobile. Freshwater has been with The Weather Channel for eight years and most recently served as national sales director for Desktop Weather.


  • The Phelps Group has hired MEGAN WEISS and KELLIE BURRIS as media specialists.


  • MIKE METTLER, former vice president/editor-in-chief Road & Track Road Gear, has been named vice president/editor-in-chief of Sound & Vision. Mettler replaces ROBERT ANKOSKO who is leaving the company.


  • The San Francisco office of Young & Rubicam Brands has named KEVIN MCCARTHY as group creative director. Additionally, the agency has elevated PAUL CAREK to creative director. McCarthy will be working across both the Y&R and Wunderman practices, with creative duties for the agency’s business-to-business and technology client base, including AMD, Hitachi Data Systems, Symantec, and MSN TV.


  • SARAH W. MATZEN has been named vice president account director for Swivel Media. Matzen previously served as senior account executive for Momentum Worldwide.


  • LinkShare Corporation has named STEVEN R. DENTON as president following the resignations of STEPHEN D. MESSER and HEIDI S. MESSER. Denton joined LinkShare in 2000 and served most recently as senior vice president of client development and distribution services.


  • Setanta Sports North America has named CHRIS LOW to the new position of director, marketing and public relations. Low will oversee all trade and consumer marketing for the Setanta Sports TV network. She will also handle marketing for Setanta Broadband, the newly launched online service that offers fans live and archived soccer and rugby.


  • Winstar Interactive has hired LAUREN KINNUCAN for the newly created position of vice president, midwest and JEFFREY COHEN as account manager covering NYC and the mid Atlantic territory.


  • Vendare Media has opened a San Francisco office and appointed JOHN ENGHAUSER as sales manager for Northern California. Enghauser previously served as director of sales for Vendare’s Traffic Marketplace brand.


  • WARREN SHOULBERG has rejoined HFN as editor in chief. Shoulberg was editor of the publication from 2000 to 2005 and most recently consulted for several companies in the home furnishings industry. He succeeds ARNOLD J. KARR, who left the company.


  • Consumer Networks, developer of the boodle online grocery coupon marketplace, has hired JENESE TESAR to the newly created position of vice president of newspaper sales. Tesar comes to Consumer Networks from PowerOne Media where she was regional general manager.


  • MIVA has promoted CHRYSI PHILALITHES to the newly created role of vice president, global marketing & communications. She will relocate from MIVA’s London office to its New York office. In her new role, Philalithes will lead marketing and communications across MIVA’s network of European and North American offices.


  • MIKE TUNNICLIFFE, chief strategic officer, Initiative North America, has been appointed to the newly created position of global client and network development director. Tunnicliffe will be responsible for developing new business opportunities in the multi-regional and global categories, and for creating and implementing a new business plan. He joined Initiative's London office in 2000, and was appointed executive vice president, Initiative Worldwide, managing client assignments and relationships with the Initiative teams across 48 markets. Prior to joining Initiative, Tunnicliffe was managing director of Western International Media in London.


  • RON DAVID WALTER has been appointed executive creative director at Conductor, a brand storytelling company. Walter will be responsible for Conductor's creative output for all new and existing clients utilizing original content development and distribution across all channels. Most recently, Walter was a partner and creative director of Banjo.


  • MINDY NATHANSON has been promoted to vice president/associate publisher, marketing for TV Guide Publishing Group. In addition, GARY KLEINMAN has been promoted to vice president/national advertising director. Kleinman will be responsible for the overall advertising revenue for TV Guide magazine and will oversee all regional sales offices.


  • MARK GOLDSTEIN has been promoted to vice chairman, BBDO North America, a new position. Goldstein will continue his role as chief marketing officer, BBDO North America. Prior to joining BBDO, Goldstein was chief marketing officer for Interpublic’s Partnership division.


  • SARAH TRAHERN has been promoted to senior vice president of programming for Great American Country. In her new position, Trahern will oversee program development and acquisition, strategic planning and production in addition to overall programming strategy.