Hasta La Creative!

DDB California has named Todd Grantham as the agency’s new president and CEO, based out of the agency’s San Francisco office, Adweek reports. Grantham fills the role vacated by Mike Harris in June.

Grantham arrives at DDB California from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he served as director of new business and associate partner. He originally arrived at Goodby back in 1996 and has held roles at the agency including  associate director of account management and managing director. He’s worked with clients such as Chevrolet, Saturn Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo and Quaker Oats.

DDB North America President Mark O’Brien “cited Grantham’s brand experience, people skills and ‘respect for creativity’” in making the hire, according to Adweek. Grantham’s experience in developing new business was undoubtedly another factor, as the agency looks to rebound from losing Well Fargo to BBDO in March. Top accounts at the agency currently include ConAgra Foods and Clorox.

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Today we learned that copywriter/creative director David Povill has rejoined the Deutsch L.A. creative team.

You may know Povill as a copywriter behind the “Little Darth” spot whose authorship is still debated by so very many, and our contact confirms that he has returned to Los Angeles to work on the VW account, among others.

W+K’s Portland office snagged Povill in 2011 after the Super Bowl spot went viral (creative director Eric Springer, who supposedly championed the ad, also left Deutsch in late 2011), and he spent more than three years there as senior copywriter. During that period, he worked on Dodge/Chrysler, Coke, Facebook and, perhaps most notably, the Old Spice “Smellcome to Manhood” campaign.

Before landing at Deutsch for his initial one-year-plus stint, Povill wrote copy for CP+B, TBWAChiatDay, and David&Goliath. (Sources tell us that Povill bears a striking resemblance to this guy, but we can’t confirm that fact.)

Expect new campaigns this Fall.

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Razorfish has appointed Deb Boyda as president of its central region, based in Chicago, MediaPost reports.

Boyda will report directly to Razorfish North America CEO Shannon Denton in her new role, effective September 2nd. She will be responsible for overseeing profitablity and growth in the Chicago and Austin offices, as well as directing the region’s client base, which includes Kraft, Citi Retail Services and Car2Go.

Boyda arrives at Razorfish from Beam Global Spirits & Wine, where she served as vice president and general manager. During her three year stint at the company, she was responsible for marketing top Beam brands, including Skinnygirl, Courvoisier and Pinnacle. Prior to Beam, she served as president of brand group Interplay Ideas for almost four years and vice president, content for Miller Brewing Company for two. She last worked on the agency side as a managing partner of Ogivly & Mather from 2004-2006, where she led the team on Dove’s award-winning “Real Beauty” campaign. The Harvard graduate began her career at Euro RSCG, where she stayed for 13 years and worked her way up to managing partner before leaving to become senior vice president at Leo Burnett. (more…)

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This morning AdAge ran a story confirming the eminent departure of Joy Schwartz, who most recently held the position of president of performance marketing, Havas Worldwide Chicago.

According to our tipsters, this came as news to those who work(ed) for her.

Schwartz, who spent more than twelve years with Havas, will run the just-announced Chicago office of BDD or Barrie D’Rozario DiLorenzo (formerly Barrie D’Rozario Murphy), starting next week. As the piece notes, the Minneapolis-based agency has expanded its executive team in recent months, hiring president and partner Kevin DiLorenzo from OLSON and opening a San Francisco office while preparing to set up shop in New York as well.

Our tips specifically claim that staffers received no announcement regarding Schartz’s departure — and that they learned of the news first thing this morning via the AdAge piece itself.

Contacts did not respond to AdAge or this blog, but other sources (who apparently know more than those who contacted us) told the magazine that the agency has begun searching for Schwartz’s replacement. She assumed the role of president in May after serving as co-president since 2009.

Updates as we receive them.

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Today Arnold Worldwide named two executives to manage the recent expansion of its health and wellness service offering.

Christine Beeby and Gary Scheiner both have extensive agency backgrounds; Scheiner landed at Arnold earlier this year in the EVP/GCD role after leaving Rosetta where he served as CCO. He also spent time in the ECD role at TBWAChiatDay.

Beeby is a more recent addition to the Arnold roster, joining the agency in July after spending more than a decade at Ogilvy as EVP and senior partner specializing in healthcare and seven years as SVP/account director at Lowe New York.

While both have particularly relevant experience with healthcare and pharmaceuticals (Scheiner currently leads the accounts for “Sanofi’s diabetes and cholesterol franchises”), they’ve both worked with a wide variety of clients in automotive, tech, consumer goods and other categories.

In the release, Beeby reveals a bit more behind the strategy, writing:

“We envision creating a new model for the healthcare arena. We’ll pitch not only traditional pharmaceutical products, but will also target foods, hospitals, technology companies, doctor networks and similar products and services that require brand building and need to engage with consumers.”

The expansion may also explain July’s hiring of President Peter Grossman; he will lead the expanded practice in Arnold’s New York office.

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In case you missed it, agency “mad boy” and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners founder Richard Kirshenbaum earned a bit of press coverage in AdAge last Friday.

The reason for the interview was the pending move of his new agency NSGSWAT and Eighty-Eight, a “social media company in which his agency has invested”. The two will soon complete a transition from their former space in SoHo into a new office located on Lower Broadway “overlooking the World Trade Center.”

The interview positions the move as further evidence of the industry’s growing distance from Madison Avenue, but Kirshenbaum sounds almost traditional in saying, “I never pretend to be a digital native, because I’m not.”

Kirshenbaum also discussed growth and recruiting in the interview, and his agency has undergone changes beyond its physical location in recent months. In May, co-founder/creative director Troy Lumpkin left to pursue other projects, and today we can confirm that fellow co-founder and CD Miles Skinner has also tindered his resignation.

Skinner tells us:

“…after almost 4 years I have resigned from my partnership and position at NSG/SWAT. As of 8/28 I will be going freelance to work on a number of creative projects both personal and professional.”

It would appear that Kirshenbaum himself is the last of the three principals mentioned in Stuart Elliot’s 2012 profile. No word on plans to replace either CD.

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LA’s David&Goliath announced the hiring of three new creatives today.

Dino Spadavecchia (above) will serve as GCD at the agency while longtime working partners Chris Hutchinson and Driscoll Reid assume creative director roles.

Spadavecchia most recently held the SVP/CD title at Leo Burnett in Chicago for nearly two years before going freelance in February; while the news of his new job first broke yesterday, he apparently moved west to join D&G back in May.

Hutchinson and Reid arrive from TBWAChiatDay after spending almost two years there as associate creative directors. Their arrival coincides with TBWA’s decision to hire Mark Peters away from Deutsch LA.

(more…)

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Don’t call it a flood, but yet another creative agency veteran has joined Apple.

In this case, Apple went overseas in its ongoing talent search, signing creative director David Burdon as the newest member of its in-house design team.

The Drum reports that Burton’s London-based agency/design consultancy Glad recently closed, and now we have a better idea as to why: he moved to San Francisco to serve as senior art director at the Mac-maker.

That blog is still awaiting the official Apple comment that will never arrive, but this move definitely fits into a pattern of hires: earlier this week the company announced the addition of former Nike/Burberry social chief Musa Tariq to Angela Ahrendts’s expanding in-house team.

The big question: what does the company plan to do beyond creating more ads like this one?

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Matthew Anderson, longtime producer at various agencies, will now serve as director of content creation at New York’s FCB Garfinkel.

Anderson, who has spent nearly two decades in the ad industry, served as director of brand production at JWT for almost five years before accepting the new job; you’ll find his name in the credits of many of the shop’s most memorable recent campaigns. He began his agency career with a ten-year stint in production at Y&R and more recently performed related roles at CP+B, Hill Holiday and NumberSix.

Anderson has created work in every major format for clients ranging from Rolex, Burger King, Puma and Nestle to Vespa, Kleenex and Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium Body.

He will report directly to agency CEO/namesake Lee Garfinkel.

In the release, Garfinkel writes that Anderson “has a track record of fostering a culture that puts ideas and problem-solving – no matter the challenge – first and foremost”, calling him “just the kind of passionate production partner we need.”

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Today we can confirm tips about two staffing changes at Deutsch LA: one arrival and one departure.

First, the agency signed Josh Hirsch as its new EVP/executive creative technology director.

Hirsch was CTO at Publicis Kaplan Thaler before the move, and he arrives to replace the outgoing CTO Trevor O’Brien, who left to devote himself full-time to The Experiment, a startup he co-founded.

In the new gig, Hirsch will oversee the Deutsch in-house development team responsible for redesigning the websites of clients like Taco Bell. Mediapost helpfully tells us that “His well-known creative achievement to date is his contribution to the HBO Voyeur Project while working at Big Spaceship.”

Also: friend of the site and all-around good guy Jeff Sweat, who previously served as SVP of PR and social media at Deutsch, has left to accept a job at 72andSunny. No word on Sweat’s official title in his new position at this time, though we look forward to accepting all his future pitches.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.