±±¾©Èü³µpk10

M&C Saatchi has promoted Richard Thompson, the boss of its talent division, to be UK group chairman, replacing long-serving Tim Duffy, who becomes group strategy director worldwide. They are the most significant appointments made by Moray MacLennan since he stepped up to become global chief executive in January, after the three founding partners, David Kershaw, Jeremy Sinclair and Bill Muirhead, stepped down, following 26 years as executive directors.

Guy Bradbury, co-founder and executive creative director of Atomic London, is leaving the agency after eight years. He said that “after a difficult 2020 for my family, I feel now is a good time to recharge the batteries, spend some time with them, before throwing myself into the next exciting creative challenge.”

Watford grads Paloma Gardiner and Alastair Milne – who last September set up their own creative agency as they sought to step into adland – have found full-time jobs as creatives at The Corner. After graduating, the pair found themselves amid “a wall of hiring freezes” in the industry, so they launched Guappp (short for “Give us a placement pretty please”), where they functioned as the agency’s founders, chief creative officers and placement team.

Interpublic media agency Initiative UK is launching a dedicated division to support clients within the health sector, which will be led by Richard Springham as managing director. Springham joins in June from his role as MD at Four Health Media, part of Four Communications Group, which he joined in 2016 as account director and digital lead. Prior to this, he was a sales director at ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s publisher Haymarket Media Group. 

Ikea has hired Linus Karlsson in the new role of chief creative officer, to work across product development and marketing and communication. Karlsson, who starts on 1 April, began his career in his native Sweden at Paradiset DDB, going on to work at Fallon Minneapolis before co-founding Mother New York in 2003. He was chief creative officer of McCann’s London and New York offices in the early 2010s.

WPP has hired Sara Rose as executive creative director for its Boots account, which is now based within VMLY&R. She joins after four years at Saatchi & Saatchi, where she was ECD global brands. She has also worked at agencies including Mother London, 72andSunny LA, Ogilvy & Mather London and DDB California.

Kyle Kiang, chief marketing officer at OnePlus, is leaving the smartphone maker this week after six years to "explore new opportunities". It follows the exit of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei last September. 

BBC Studios has appointed Penny Brough as senior vice-president for marketing and audiences. In January she left ViacomCBS, where she had been SVP, chief marketing officer for the past eight years. Since then, she has worked for Channel 4 as a consultant and interim head of marketing.

JOE Media has appointed Paul Coldham as head of creative. He was previously owner and executive creative director at We Are Giant, and has also worked at Found, Formation Films, Red Bull and Mail Metro Media.

Satellite communications company Inmarsat has appointed Barry French as chief marketing and communications officer. He previously spent more than 14 years at Nokia where he was CMO from 2014 until last December.

Jamie Craven has left his role as head of design at Fold7 to launch a  brand design agency, Hello Morning. Craven, also a former head of design at Havas London, DLKW Lowe and Fallon, is leading the new studio, which will work across a range of design projects, with its main focus on branding.

Sports and entertainment marketing agency The Space Between has appointed Patrick Stileman to lead its creative strategy. He started working at the agency on a freelance basis in January, having previously worked at companies including TBWA, Pearson, Frukt and Oliver.

Digital agency Organic has appointed Gillian Meier to the new role of head of digital marketing. She joins after almost 14 years at digital consultancy and training company BlueMagnet, where she was most recently chief executive and global head. 

Digital agency Criteo has appointed Rachel Scheel as its first senior vice-president of global diversity, equity and inclusion. She joins after nine years at GE Healthcare, where she was most recently global culture, inclusion and employee engagement executive.

Truant has created a new associate board, The Ministry of Truant Affairs, made up of the agency’s junior recruits. It is intended to “keep the senior leadership team sharp and ensure Truant stays ahead of the cultural curve”. It will be led by account director Rebecca Nicholson. 

Zara Hickey, managing director of event staffing agency Elevate, has left the business after nearly eight years. Joe Sheppard has been appointed as UK managing director. Shepphard joins from his role as director of Pod Staffing, which is majority owned by Haygarth, where he worked for 10 years. In his new role he will be responsible for driving the growth and supporting existing clients with the safe return of their experiential and brand activations. He will report to Carina Filek, global chief operating officer.  

Consumer research platform Attest has hired Sam Curtin as vice-president of sales. He was previously regional VP sales, EMEA commercial at Medallia.

Business advisory firm Fortus has expanded its creative and media offering with the launch of a Sport & Entertainment division, and has hired former England footballer Andrew Johnson to lead it as head of sport and entertainment.