Agency Spy

Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam has appointed Lee Newman, previously senior vice-president and group account director at Austin-based GSD&M, as managing director.

Newman will join executive creative directors John Norman and the recently appointed Jeff Kling to complete the management team at W&K Amsterdam.

At SuperSpy’s fave agency, Newman led the agency’s BMW account, helping BMW “evolve their brand positioning” (ed note: don’t you love the extra fancy terminology?) in the US market. Prior to GSD&M, Newman was senior vice-president and group account director at McKinney-Silver on the Audi of America account.

Newman also oversaw the BMW account at Fallon before joining GSD&M, and was part of the team that developed the BMW Films campaign.

So it seems they have appointed a “car guy” in a location where they don’t have a car account (They run the Honda account out of their London office) — interesting tack to take going forward. They run the Carlsberg, Coke, EA, Nike, Sharp AQUOS & Wyborowa Wodka accounts (amongst a couple of others) with 150 people in the Amsterdam office.

Since you all love your creative announcements (and critiques abound) — we have another one for you.

Jose Cabaco, a creative director at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., has been hired by Euro RSCG Worldwide here as its first chief creative officer for North American operations.

More details from Adweek:

“Jose is that rare creative talent who combines excellence in both strategy and creative, in both creative concept and execution, in both inspiring and authoring, and in driving both creative vision and creative operations,” said Esther Lee, CEO, North America and president of global brands, in a statement.

At Wieden, Cabaco, 43, oversaw creative strategy for Nike Europe, Nike Latin America and Electronic Arts. Cabaco, who also worked at Wieden in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, spent much of his career in Portugal.

Born in Maputo, Mozambique, Cabaco studied industrial design at the Institute of Art & Design in Lisbon and went on to work at agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Cineponto/Leo Burnett Lisbon, Vitruvio Leo Burnett Madrid, Young & Rubicam, Nova Publicidade and EPG/TBWA in Lisbon. He co-founded his own agency in Lisbon in 2001 called Home, which later merged with Grey Advertising.

Prior to advertising, Cabaco worked as a car, furniture and ceramics designer. He also co-founded Bike magazine and was a creative partner at Sneakers Delight stores in Portugal.”

Working at Nike pays off again for those fleeing the rain of Portland — videogame experience too at EA (the hottest industry at the moment) can’t hurt either.

I’m sure you’ll have input to add…

Yoda Bob has pulled one of his own back into the fold — and the added bonus — it hurts one of his main competitors.

Mauro Cavalletti is returning to R/GA as executive creative director after three years at other shops, including Organic and most recently AKQA, where he was group creative director.

Cavalletti, 46, begins work at R/GA in mid-May, when it will open in San Francisco. The West Coast outpost is the New York-based agency’s third office, following its expansion to London about two years ago.

Adweek has more details:

“He’s extraordinary at creative, technology and user experience,” said Bob Greenberg, CEO of R/GA. “It’s all the things we need and want to get. He’s a real manager and can handle large clients.”

R/GA is looking at office space in San Francisco that could house as many as 80 employees, Greenberg said. By the end of 2008, the shop expects roughly 25-30 workers. R/GA has more than 600 employees in New York and 30 in London.

“We opened in San Francisco not based on business but based on talent,” he said. “Talent is the biggest issue facing agencies today. It’s the biggest open creative and technology talent pool other than New York.”

While Greenberg sees AKQA as R/GA’s main rival, he said the shop would not specifically target talent from there.

“It’s not so much the agencies but the Yahoo!s and Googles,” he said. “All the technology companies have many potential hires for us.”"

Now Bob is getting a little silly there — hiring from the Yahoos and Googles would just be fucking dumb for an agency — unless it was a straight tech job that is.  Having experience with those companies, it would be a clusterfuck if you tried to convert them to the agency lifestyle because the mentality is completely different and the client demands would cause the new people to lose their shit — quickly.

At AKQA, Cavalletti worked on several accounts, including Target, Method and Kraft. He led Organic’s user experience practice in both New York and San Francisco from 2005-06. In his past life at R/GA, Cavalletti rose from senior interaction designer to interaction design director to creative director from 1999 to 2005.

Cavalletti will initially work on Nike at R/GA, along with new clients the office acquires. He will report to Nick Law, R/GA’s chief creative officer for North America. R/GA has also landed two local clients that Greenberg declined to name — speculation has that one of them could be Levi’s.

Leo Burnett Sydney has hired Andy DiLallo (pictured right) and Jay Benjamin (pictured left) from JWT as executive creative directors. They replace Mark Collis, who bailed out over to Ogilvy & Mather Japan.

More from Brand Republic Asia:

“After a five-month global talent search, the duo will complete the agency’s senior management line-up, following the recruitment of Scott Davis as head of strategy and Josh Grace as head of direct marketing.

Todd Sampson, chief executive of Leo Burnett Sydney, said: “I hired Andy and Jay because I think they are the best, and will lift an already high bar of creativity. This year, Leo Burnett will be one of the top creative agencies in the world.”

Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett’s worldwide creative director, added: “Andy and Jay have a proven ability to generate big ideas time and time again. With Todd Sampson we now have a dynamic, new, creative management team in place, with the talent to take full advantage of the infinite creative opportunities that face our industry.”

I do like the STP ball cap — nice touch — very “hip, edgy & creative” — reminds me of a time that we interviewed a creative who showed up for a global client-facing role wearing green running shoes — odd choice…but they hired him and he lasted less than a year.

Anyway, last I heard LB Sydney is not doing too badly — especially when you measure it against the disasters of the Chicago & London offices — especially on the creative side of the business.  Good luck to the new kids!

Havas’ Euro RSCG in Chicago has named John Minnec executive director, a new post in which he will guide business development, interactive and general advertising efforts — basically a jack of all trades post in this new “integrated” world.

He reports to Ron Bess, agency president, and takes over for Zain Raj, who last week was promoted to CEO of Euro RSCG Discovery — their CRM/Customer Insight specialized agency.

Prior to joining Euro RSCG, Minnec most recently served as president of Interpublic Group’s DraftFCB London (which — like most Draft places — crashed & burned spectacularly losing clients left & right) which claims accounts from Nokia (which is actually a “Rivet” client when they still had (and lost) Motorola) and Computer Associates.

More from Adweak:

“John is an international leader in the truest sense. His extensive expertise spanning the entire marketing and advertising spectrum will no doubt prove invaluable for Euro RSCG Chicago and our clients,” said Bess, in a statement. “John’s combined knowledge of agency leadership, account management and business development make him a perfect fit for this new position.”

Key clients at Euro RSCG in Chicago include Assurant Health, Barilla, Effen Vodka, Circuit City, Citigroup, Culligan and Sprint.”

He has also held posts at Draft in Chicago, Ogilvy & Mather, Grey and Leo Burnett.

A quality recycling program continues on in the ad world…

Continuing our international theme today — seems Tribal DDB has appointed a new leader in China.

“Jit Hoong Ng (pictured) has been appointed as MD of Tribal DDB in Shanghai, replacing Diana Jim, who left the post and the industry six months ago.

Ng has over 15 years of experience in the new media and communications business. Most recently, he was MD of RMG Connect in Beijing for almost two years. He will report to Amanda King, Tribal DDB Asia-Pacific president, and Dick van Motman, president and CEO of DDB China Group.

“My role is to continue to work with our clients so that their creative digital solutions are engaging and spark interesting conversation in the digital space,” said Ng.”

Good luck to him — should be a fairly busy time for him to dive in with that whole Olympics thing slated to go off here soon.

Amy Eagle has flown the coop (oh I am a master of puns this morning) — flying away from KB+P to land in a new nest at DDB. She’ll be running Uniliver’s ice cream accounts — which clock in at an estimated “cool” $100 million worth of business.

From Adweak:

“In her two years at MDC Partners’ Kirshenbaum here, Eagle worked on accounts such as Starz Entertainment, Coca-Cola’s Tab and Diageo’s Don Julio and Ciroc. Before that, she was director of communications planning on Procter & Gamble at Aegis Group’s Carat in New York. Earlier in her career, Eagle was director of account planning at DDB’s San Francisco office.

“Amy is a terrific talent with strong, integrated platform experience that will benefit our new client and the agency at large,” said Hempel in a statement.”

Meanwhile back at KB+P, they filled its client services position with Steve McCall, a partner and the agency’s director of client business development. McCall will retain his business development duties and will be pulling double duty.

Good luck to Amy — I’m sure she’ll be soaring in no time!

(ed note: Ok…feel free to abuse me for multiple pun use…but it is on the verge of a long weekend..I’m a bit batty at the moment.)

Cribbed from a press release from this afternoon:

“Chris Foster has been named CEO, Fallon North America. Mr. Foster will have operational responsibility for Fallon’s headquarter operations based in Minneapolis. He begins the new gig on April 1.

Chris is joining Fallon from Saatchi & Saatchi NY where has been the Executive Vice President, Global Equity Director heading up the global business for P&G’s laundry and home care business. Previously he was CEO for Saatchi & Saatchi’s offices in Japan and Hong Kong. He is a Canadian and started is career in Toronto working for Bozell Worldwide, Leo Burnett, and FCB.”

Now we all know that Fallon Minneapolis has had multiple issues in regard to a variety of problems over the past few months — losing out on the Microsoft gig (that went to CP+B); the client departures — including BMW of North America, Lee Jeans and Citi, representing more than $250 million in billings; the hirings (and quick firings) of ECDs Paul Silburn from TWBA London & Kerry Feuerman from Leo Burnett –both who lasted less than a year in the post each time.

The best/worst contrast is the growth and development of Fallon’s London location — which is kicking major ass these days with the Cadbury “Gorilla” ads, the Sony Bravia & Walkman campaigns and the Skoda “Cake” work. Billings are up 150% and they are on fire…

Seems Chris has a bit of work to live up to the other locations… good luck to him!

Jon Soto has been named executive creative director at Omnicom Group’s BBDO West. Read more here.

TBWA\Chiat\Day here has recruited Shane Ankeney from Doner to assume the new role of executive director of audience planning. Read more here.

Grey Atlanta has a new president and CCO in Stephen Ward, named to succeed Mark Goldman. Read more here.

Mcgarrybowen here has named BBDO senior account director Julie Levin to the titled of account managing director. Read more here.

Changing jobs? Let us know. We’re interested in the big and the small movers, so creative directors and junior copywriters alike- don’t delay. Email : agencyspy at mediabistro dot com

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Mullen taps chief strategy officer David Duncan to join the firm. Duncan, who is bailing on Leo Burnett, lead the brand planning group in Mullen’s Wenham and Detroit offices and play a role in developing strategy and creative solutions for new and existing clients. READ MORE HERE

Ogilvy is making some big changes in an attempt to integrate their shop even further and fix some of those “creativity” problems they’ve been having. Carla Hendra is now Chairman of Ogilvy New York in addition to Co-CEO of North America. Chris Wall becomes Vice Chairman, Creative of Ogilvy NY, overseeing the work across advertising, direct, and interactive as a single creative force. In a new role, Michelle Bottomley assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer of Ogilvy NY. David Apicella becomes Vice Chairman, Creative of North America. Jan Leth will take on the role of Vice Chairman, Global Digital Creative, assuming responsibility for the advancement of digital creative for Ogilvy Worldwide.

On lower rungs in the Ogilvy star ship, Peter Moss joins Ogilvy New York as a group creative director working on a variety of global accounts. Moss spent the last 13 years working for Ogilvy in Asia; first in Hong Kong, then in Singapore.

Kristen D’Arcy Mcaloon joined R/GA in New York as management supervisor.

Universal McCann named Patricia Steele as global director of communications.