Giles Hedger, the former chief executive of M&C Saatchi London, has joined Diageo as global consumer planning director. He has replaced Andrew Geoghegan, who has moved to Carex owner PZ Cussons to become chief marketing transformation officer. Hedger, a former chief strategy officer at Leo Burnett and FCB Inferno, left M&C Saatchi after two-and-a-half years in December 2019, following the agency group’s accounting crisis. For a year until May, he worked at the Cabinet Office as a strategy lead.
Sky has appointed Prasanna Gopalakrishnan as chief technology officer following a global search. Reporting to Sky group chief executive Dana Strong, Gopalakrishnan joins in September from Bank of America, where she is managing director and chief information officer of consumer tech business operations, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She will relocate to London and join the executive leadership team at Sky. She replaces Mohamed Hammady, who decided to step down from Sky at the end of 2020.
Havas has appointed Ol Janus to the new role of global head of data for its customer experience network, Havas CX. Janus, previously group head of data for the network’s lead UK agency, Havas CX Helia, will report to Havas Creative global chief strategy officer Mark Sinnock.
Four media agency veterans have launched Bonded, a new digital and media agency “with a “disruptive model based on human connection”. The founders are Steve Underwood, former managing partner at Dentsu; Kevin Sung, former associate director at iProspect; Kevin McEwan, former director at Carat; and Bonded chairman Dave Lucas, who led Mediavest prior to its acquisition by Aegis (now Dentsu International) in 2011.
Bonded aims to fill a gap in the market “by bringing brands and their customers together in a truly authentic and meaningful way”. The founders have developed a four-stage planning and measurement framework to allow full funnel channel activity to create better, deeper and lasting audience relationships.
Wavemaker has appointed Oli Saunders to the role of global head of addressability and dynamic creative optimisation. Saunders joins Wavemaker after acting as a strategic adviser to the Group M Addressable Content Unit since January, before which he was chief product officer at Omnicom’s programmatic creative specialist shop Adylic. He is also the co-founder of lifestyle blog platform FitnessOnToast.com.
Measurement and optimisation company Analytic Partners has appointed Andy Gallagher as vice-president of client engagement. Based in the London office, Gallagher will be responsible for supporting clients and growing the business both in the UK and across EMEA. He will report to chief client officer Maggie Merklin. He joins after three years at Kantar, where he was head of analytics consultancy.
Sustainability body Isla has appointed Toni Griggs as growth lead. Griggs will be responsible for shaping further expansion of Isla; engaging with the wider event industry and identifying new opportunities. This will include taking to market a number of Isla products and resources scheduled for release in 2021, including an event-specific carbon measurement software. Griggs joins Isla after a year of contracting at agencies including Better Without, Cheerful Twentyfirst, 2LK and Elevate Staffing. Prior to this Griggs spent more than six years with George P Johnson, where she began as business development and marketing manager before moving on to be senior business development and marketing manager and finally, head of brand.
We Are Social has appointed Seth Jones permanently as senior creative director, after four months working with the agency on a contract. He previously spent two years at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, followed by short stints with Tommy and Copa90. Jenni Smit, meanwhile, has been promoted from senior designer to design director. They appointments follow Viren Mistry joining in February as associate editorial director.
Nexus Studios has signed Siqi Song to its commercial roster. Based in Los Angeles, Song’s work has been screened at film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Annecy and Ottawa. Her film Sister, which she wrote, designed and animated, was nominated for an Academy Award and an Annie Award last year. She was also named a Film Independent Directing Fellow in 2018 and a BAFTA Los Angeles Newcomer in 2019.
Spindle has added Simon Hynd, the comedy director who shot the latest series of Motherland, to its roster for representation in the UK. Hynd has written and directed short films and crime-drama feature film Senseless, which was nominated for Best British Feature at Raindance. He also directed both series of BAFTA-winning comedy/drama There She Goes starring David Tennant and Jessica Hynes, and the upcoming series of Joe Wilkinson and David Earl’s The Cockfields.
Walnut Unlimited, the insights and analytics agency owned by Unlimited Group, has promoted Chris Bland from director to managing director.
Independent agency Space & Time has promoted managing partner Chris Jones to managing director. Jones, who previously worked at Space & Time from 2010 to 2012, rejoined in 2015 as an account director from Adgenda Media.
End-to-end digital product and service design agency Future Platforms has hired Cameron Day as managing partner with a focus on business growth. He was previously commercial director at digital product studio Untwo.
Liverpool-based design lead creative agency WeThree has appointed Jonathan Ross, the former managing director of BrandFuel, to the same role.
Newcastle-based affiliate and partnership marketing agency Silverbean has appointed Damian Hall as managing director, alongside his existing role of chief operating officer.
Cambridge-based social media and content marketing agency OST has made a trio of promotions. Senior account director Stef Lait becomes client experience director, account director Helen Sharpe becomes strategy director, and senior account manager Georgia O’Keefe becomes account director.
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