Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has appointed Sam Hawkey, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi London, as its CEO. In his new role, Hawkey will run the 300-strong agency, creating work for clients including Essity, Ford and Mars. He will have full responsibility for all departments across the Omnicom shop and report to Jim Moser, chairman of BBDO in Europe.
Saatchi & Saatchi has appointed Chris Kay, global partner and Asia Pacific CEO at 72andSunny, as its chief executive, replacing Hawkey. As CEO, Kay will report to Magnus Djaba, global president of Saatchi & Saatchi and CEO of Publicis Groupe UK’s creative practice.
Ana and Hermeti Balarin have been poached from Mother London by rival US independent Wieden & Kennedy in Portland. The married couple have been executive creative directors of Mother London since 2015 and have worked for nearly 15 years at the agency, since moving from Brazil and joining on creative placements in 2007.
Neverland has appointed Polly Dedman, global brand director at Adam & Eve/DDB, to the new role of managing director. Dedman, who joins at the end of this month, will oversee client service and business growth. In the longer term she will lead the development of the agency’s offering beyond its current core of creative communications and brand strategy.
Carolyn Everson, vice-president of global business at Facebook, has left the social media giant after a decade.
Celeste Dalairac has been appointed executive creative director at Grey London, just four months after she joined the agency as creative director from Saatchi & Saatchi. Dalairac is a multi-award-winning creative director and has worked on several of the world’s biggest brands, including Coca-Cola, GSK, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Vodafone.
Havas has appointed Katie Keith, formerly first lady at Rattling Stick, to a hybrid role spanning both its production network and London creative agency. Keith will act as global head of content for Havas Studios and head of production for Havas London in a bid to encourage collaboration and instil a production-led "makers" ethos.
Adam & Eve/DDB has hired Molly Wilkof as a creative director to work across its entire portfolio of clients. Wilkof joins from Wieden & Kennedy, where she was a creative for two years. Prior to this Wilkof was at Droga5 London, where she worked on clients including Amazon.
Imagination has appointed Tom Gray as chief strategy officer. Gray will support the agency's chief executive Patrick Reid, the global leadership team and the strategy team as the business grows and evolves.
Spotify has hired Taj Alavi as its global marketing head. Alavi started in the position this month, according to her LinkedIn profile. Between March 2019 and August 2020, Alavi was Uber’s senior director and global head of marketing communications. Since October, she has worked at financial technology company Chime as VP of marketing and comms, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Quiet Storm, the agency behind the Create Not Hate initiative, has hired 18-year-old Emmanuel Areoye, who took part in the campaign’s first wave of work last year. Areoye created and co-directed the project’s "Check your prejudice" films, including A Heated Conversation, which premiered at the Electric Cinema in the wake of George Floyd’s murder last year.
Havas has appointed Sharon Annafi as its diversity, equity and inclusion lead. She joins from Business in the Community, and Havas said her non-advertising industry background will bring a fresh perspective to DE&I.
Mark Field has returned to Reach Solutions to the new role of client strategy director, working closely with agencies and brands. Field had spent the past five years at News UK, where he led The Bridge Studio. He previously ran the branded content Invention team at Reach, owner of the Daily Mirror.
Jerry Buhlmann has been appointed chairman of Hybrid, a Bristol-based digital media company specialising in the higher education and universities sector, after private equity firm LDC took a significant stake. Buhlmann, the former global chief executive of Dentsu Aegis Network, holds several non-executive roles, including chair of LDC-backed Croud and director of Tulchan and Inchape.
Annette Thomas, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, has decided to leave the publisher after only 15 months in the role. Keith Underwood, chief financial and operating officer, will lead GMG on an interim basis as acting chief executive.
Helen Warren-Piper, general manager for Mars Pet Nutrition UK for the past two years, has been promoted to chief growth officer of Mars Pet Nutrition Europe.
Neverland has hired Dipesh Mistry and Drew Haslehurst as associate creative directors. The pair, known as Dip & Drew, are leaving Brave to join Neverland.
iProspect has promoted Libby Darley to head of planning and Grace Letley to head of strategy in iProspect’s new UK executive leadership team. They report to David Grainger, chief strategy officer for iProspect UK.
Vevo, the music video network, has appointed Richard Brant as Advanced TV director UK & International. He joins from Dentsu International, where he spent two years building out its overarching Connected TV proposition and vision as director of AV product.
Guy Jackson, vice-president of global media platform Teads, has been appointed as the new chairman of Nabs’ Manchester committee.
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