LAURA DESMOND, chief executive officer of MediaVest USA, has been named CEO of SMG/The Americas, effective October 1. Desmond will preside over a region that includes Canada, the United States and Latin America, and includes the USA brands Starcom, MediaVest, GM Planworks, StarLink, Halogen and Tapestry.

TINA JOHNSON, editor-in-chief of Women's Health magazine, has been promoted to vice president. Johnson will continue to set the editorial direction for and manage all editorial operations of the magazine.

ANNA HEATHERLY has joined Empower MediaMarketing as digital strategist. Heatherly joins Empower from Cincinnati.com, where she served as new media production assistant/sales coordinator.

DMI Music & Media Solutions has opened a Chicago office and tapped JILL BARTOLUCCI to spearhead the operation as vice president of sales and marketing.

DIANA OSWALD has been named the executive director of marketing and creative services for Radar magazine and Radar Online. Most recently, she was the creative services director for domino magazine.

ALLISON MATAYA has been named president of Adcision Networks. Mataya joins Adcision from Merkley + Partners, where she oversaw the Mercedes-Benz account as Washington regional account director.

Prevention Magazine has named COURTNEY LAWSON as account manager of Prevention Specials. Lawson comes to Prevention from Teen People, where she served as junior account manager.

SFGT has named MARY BURKE as technology strategies project manager. Previously, Burke was marketing manager for Vertis.

DAVID SPARRGROVE has joined Concrete Pictures as creative director.

R/GA has promoted NICK LAW to chief creative officer, N.A., a position formerly held by chairman and CEO, BOB GREENBERG.

SANJAY PARMAR has been promoted from online campaign manager to director of client service at NetShelter.

CHARLIE BARRETT has been promoted to vice president of sales for CNET Networks Entertainment Brand division that includes GameSpot, Metacritic.com, MP3.com, and TV.com. SCOTT DORNBLASER will take Barrett's place heading up sales initiatives for the CNET Networks Community.

ePrize has promoted IVAN FRANK to executive vice president of business development.

Young & Rubicam Brands Irvine has added MILES TURPIN as senior vice president, creative director. He joins the agency from Energy BBDO where he was most recently group creative director.

The Webby Awards has appointed former Variety publisher GERRY BYRNE as vice chairman of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.

Carat Fusion has hired JEFF THALER as senior vice president, director of program management. Most recently, Thaler worked at Tribal DDB New York.

MIKE KELLY, formerly a senior partner and executive group director at Ogilvy, has been named president of Amalgamated. Additionally, he joins agency founders CHARLES ROSEN, DOUG HOLT, DOUG CAMERON and JASON GABORIAU as a partner.

TRACY LEHMANN has been named director of planning for Intermedia, handling the Ditech account. Most recently, Lehmann was senior media planner at G2 direct & digital working on the Auto Club of Southern California account.

EyeWonder has launched a Midwest regional office in Chicago, led by new regional sales head KATHLEEN LEVIN. Prior to joining EyeWonder, Levin served as a senior account executive at WeatherBug and most recently as senior account director at BlueLithium. In addition, BARRY BEDFORD was named managing director of the company’s Ireland office.

AKQA has appointed GUY WIEYNK as managing director of its New York office. He joined AKQA in London in 1998 and relocated to AKQA in San Francisco as client services director in 2004.

VINCE SANTO was named vice president and managing director of Molecular’s New York office.

LISA PALMER has been promoted to vice president and general sales manager at Adlink, up from local sales manager.

United Online has hired WILLIAM "BILL" MASTERSON as vice president, agency sales. Prior to joining the UOL Media Group, Masterson was vice president of agency relations at Advertising.com.

J&A Partners has hired KEVIN ENDRES as executive creative director and senior vice president and LEO BLUMBERG as director of strategic information and planning.

Q1Media tapped CATHERINE WILSON for southwest interactive sales; NICOLE SMITH as account manager and BILL WIEMANN will head up interactive sales for it's new cheatcc.com gaming site.

JOSEF KATZ has joined Trump University as executive director, marketing. Most recently, Katz was the executive director integrated marketing for Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions.

JOE MICHELETTI has been named the television analyst for the New York Rangers on MSG.