Hasta La Creative!

Bi-coastal, MDC Partners-owned agency Vitro, which of course has been behind many an ASICS campaign among other things in recent years, has added a handful of new staffers in its San Diego HQ in order bolster its digital, strategic and design departments. Among those joining the fold in Ron Burgundy’s hometown are Peter “PJ” Yesawich, who joins Vitro as digital creative director (with a focus on “all things integrated”) after spending barely six months at Modus Operandi as a CD. During his career, though, Yesawich also held lead digital strategy/creative roles at the likes of EVB, Venables Bell & Partners and Exopolis.

Along with its new digital CD, Vitro has also brought on Deep Focus/72andSunny alum Danielle Waldron as executive director/integrated strategy, Eugene Kim, a former Arnold digital/social strategist who now assumes the role of director of social media and Bill Sager as design director. Along with the new hires, we’ve been told that Vitro, which won the Petco biz earlier this summer, will soon be announcing that it’s nabbed AOR duties for a yet-to-be-named “iconic spirits brand,” which the agency has been working with for the past six months. We’ll keep you posted if and when we find out which brand this exactly is.

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Let’s shift gears on the Grey front for a moment from the usual New York happenings to San Francisco as the agency has welcomed Milan Martin as president of its Bay Area branch. Martin joins Grey SF after spending nearly three years as managing director/chief strategist at Anthem Worldwide. Prior to Anthem, the exec had a four-year stint at Gyro, where he last served as president of its New York office. During his career, Martin also spent a decade at both the New York and London offices of Ogilvy, where he served as account director and led brand management for the likes of IBM, Gillette, AT&T, Anheuser-Busch and Virgin.

Martin, who will lead a staff of 50 at Grey SF, replaces Brad Fogel, who left the agency on his own a couple of months ago and now serves as COO for Innocean USA.

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After spending the last four years serving as group creative director/managing partner at IPG-owned, NYC-based agency Gotham, Reid Miller has headed to WPP-owned TAXI to assume the role of ECD at its New York office. During his time at Gotham, Miller worked alongside fellow GCD/managing partner Anthony Moss on past and present accounts including Denny’s (“Always Open,” for example), Yellowbook, Hitachi and Best Western. Prior to Gotham, Miller, an art director by trade, served as an ACD or creative director at the likes of Y&R, BBDO, Lowe and Hill Holliday. The parties involved say Miller’s appointment “completes the management lineup” at TAXI NYC, which counts clients including Mohegan Sun and Campbell’s Soup.

Miller succeeds Stephen Leps, who spent the last two-plus years as TAXI NY ECD. We’ve been told has chosen to stay close to the creative product as GCD, “building on existing client relationships and supporting Reid on a day-to-day basis.”

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No official word from the Deutsch LA camp as of yet, but a phone call to the agency tells us that Victoria Guenier is no longer at the IPG-owned operation where she’s spent nearly a decade. For the last four years, Guenier served as SVP/director of broadcast/content production at Deutsch LA, which last December helped fund her feature film effort, Between Us, via the agency’s Side Project Project initiative. As for her day job, Guenier worked on several campaigns for the likes of Volkswagen (including this), Playstation, Dr. Pepper and Taco Bell (including this). No word yet on reasons for her departure, but those on the Spy line allege that VW budget issues may have had something to do with it.

Prior to her lengthy stint at Deutsch LA, Guenier spent a few years on the production side at Ogilvy.

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We first heard about this at the beginning of July and at the time, the Arnold camp couldn’t confirm that Curt Detweiler had assumed a senior-level post at the Havas-owned agency. Well, what do we have here, it appears that Detweiler has updated his LinkedIn to show that he’s now EVP/managing director/ECD at Arnold Worldwide. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched considering that Arnold’s global CEO is Robert LePlae, who in 2009 while serving as McCann North America president, brought on Detweiler as the agency’s North American creative chief.

LePlae eventually split from McCann in fall 2011 and landed at Arnold a year ago to initially assume the role of global president. As for Detweiler, the creative exec remains based out of San Francisco it appears. We’re trying to get  confirmation on his arrival and specifics such as his start date from Arnold, but as you may know, Detweiler spent several years as a creative director at various TBWA offices and served as partner/ECD at the now-defunct Ground Zero before joining McCann.

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We first inquired about this two weeks ago when the tips came in and have yet to hear back, but there seem to have been some notable defections in recent times from West Studios. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, West is the San Francisco-based shop that was launched two years ago by former Apple global marketing communications head, Allison Johnson, and was initially co-funded by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey (we’re being told that Dorsey has since distanced himself from the company). During its initial launch, West was headed up by Johnson, former Martin Agency GCD Keith Cartwright and Katalyst digital head, Sarah Ross.

Well, as tipsters have pointed out, the latter two are no longer at West and in fact Cartwright doesn’t even acknowledge his time at the operation on their LinkedIn profiles. Of course, these aren’t the only notable departures from the SF shop in recent months. Travis Britton, former Cutwater principal/ECD who joined West as chief experience officer last year, has parted ways as has COO, Amanda Kelso (former W+K ECD Todd Waterbury was also in the mix but is now of course serving in the same role at Target). And today, we’re hearing that a major client is on the outs with the shop. We’re putting in more inquiries to the rather secretive West Studios, and will try to clarify what the state of the union is as soon as we hear more.

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Well, as you may have heard, Darren Moran has officially joined Havas Worldwide’s New York office as its new chief creative officer. Once again, we’ve obtained a memo (confirmed legit), this time sent from Havas global president Andrew Benett (who also doubles as NY CEO) to staff just a couple of hours ago regarding Moran’s arrival. The newly minted CCO most recently spent his second tour of duty at BBDO New York, which he rejoined just last fall as executive creative director. During his career, the creative exec also served as EVP/chief creative officer at Draftfcb NY.

Anyhow, feel free to check out Benett’s memo, which also mentions a few other key leadership notes, in full after the jump.

continued…

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A bit of quick people news to start the morning off as CP+B has welcomed three new creative directors to its Boulder hub, namely Sesh Moodley, Matthew Elhardt and Avital Pinchevsky. Moodley arrives from AKQA, where he spent nearly a year as creative director in the agency’s San Francisco office working on its Anheuser-Busch biz. Prior to AKQA, Moodley has had a variety of global stints, spending several years as a senior creative at the Sydney offices of both Leo Burnett and Lowe and as a CD at Naked Communications.

Elhardt, a 20-year industry vet, has freelanced as a variety of agencies ranging from TBWA\MAL to W+K but has also served as a CD proper at TBWA\Chiat\Day itself as well as Carmichael Lynch and 180LA. Finally, Pinchevsky arrives from DDB South Africa, where she spent the last 18 months or so as creative director on McDonald’s. During her career, she’s also served as an ACD at BBDO New York and as a copywriter at Y&R Tel Aviv.

The new hires will all work across accounts in their roles at CP+B.

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It all started yesterday when a simple, yet vague tip came in saying, “Tyler Whisnand to Apple,” and the road has been long and winding since. If you don’t know the name, Whisnand spent the last six years at W+K Portland, serving as creative director on Levi’s and Nike, helping lead efforts on the “Go Forth” campaign for the former brand and spots like Tiger vs. Rory for Nike Golf from the beginning of the year. Well, we checked with W+K, which told us that Whisnand, much to our surprise, actually left the agency earlier this year to assume a creative director position at TBWA\Media Arts Lab on, what else, Apple–though you wouldn’t know it judging from the bio on his site.

Anyhow, we’ve checked in with both Apple PR and \MAL on Whisnand’s status and are awaiting some clarification. During his time at W+K, meanwhile, the senior creative also served as co-director alongside Hal Curtis of W+K’s in-house ad school/”League of Shadows,” W+K12. The W+K camp tells us, “we [were] very sad to see him go—he was definitely beloved here.” During his career, Whisnand also held creative roles at the likes of KesselsKramer, Ground Zero and Y&R NY. Hopefully we’ll get some updates on this shortly and try to sort this out. Stay tuned.

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Hmm, well, we’ve received a few tips about this today, and now a phone call has confirmed that Danny Gregory, who has spent nearly a decade at McGarryBowen and most recently served as executive creative director/managing partner, is no longer with the Dentsu-owned agency. You can read his blog post after the fact here.

We’re awaiting some official comment on this, but in the meantime, along with Gregory’s departure, you can see on the leadership board of McGB’s New York office that Erik Vukmirovich is no longer with the agency. Vukmirovich has spent the last eight years at McGarryBowen, worked out of the NYC branch and served as partner/CFO/COO. According to the site, he’s now been replaced by global CFO, Christine Moore. During Gregory’s time at McGarryBowen, the 30-year ad vet, who’s also a published author, created campaigns for a range of clients including Pfizer, JPMorgan Chase, The Wall Street Journal and Chevron. Prior to his lengthy stint at McGB, Gregory served as a copywriter for the likes of Ogilvy and Y&R.

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