Move and win roundup: Week of November 18, 2024

Elmwood, a global brand and design consultancy, has appointed Claudia Li and Jean Chen as account directors to its Singapore leadership team. Li joins from Design Bridge and Partners in Hong Kong, bringing over 20 years of experience in brand consulting and client leadership for a diverse range of clients, including Celcom Digi, Vodafone, HSBC, Bank of America, Swire Properties, and Shangri La Group. Chen, who previously worked at Holmes and Marchant, will lead and grow the consumer brand practice. With close to 20 years of experience across regional and global markets, Chen worked for Interband Shanghai before joining Holmes & Marchant.

Commvault, a provider of cyber resilience and data protection solutions for hybrid cloud organisations, has appointed Jill Macmurchy as chief customer officer for APAC. Based out of ANZ, Macmurchy will drive customer success and innovation across APAC. She brings a wealth of leadership experience from senior leadership roles at Confluent and New Relic, with technical expertise across solutions engineering and pre-sale. Earlier this year, Craig Bastow, who joined in 2014, has been promoted to the role of area vice president for Australia and New Zealand. 

Jaywing, a data, creative and performance marketing agency, has boosted its digital PR offering and appointed two specialists:

• Rob Hilborn joins as senior SEO director. With more than 10 years working in digital marketing, PR and project management across clients and agencies in the B2B and B2C space, Hilborn joins Jaywing from UK creative marketing specialist, Submerge, where he was head of SEO working with brands such as Laithwaites, Legal & General and Red Head Wine.
• Harriet Dawson joins as digital PR specialist. Since arriving in Australia from the UK, Dawson has been responsible for building the Digital PR product offering for iProspect, including the creation and execution of campaigns for a range of brands, including La Roche Posay, Garnier and Lancôme.

Wellcom has appointed Natalie Smith as director of strategy. With over 15 years of experience in strategies, based in Australia, Smith brings a fresh perspective that blends strategic experience across branding, customer experience, PR, social and integrated campaigns. Her experience includes working at RGA, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy, Example, and Present Company.

Sarah McGregor, previously the executive creative director at Dentsu Creative ANZ, has departed the agency following what has been described as a “sensitive and isolated incident.” McGregor joined Dentsu Creative in 2022 as one of CEO Kirsty Muddle's early hires, having previously collaborated with Muddle at Cummins & Partners. Earlier in her career, McGregor held roles at Leo Burnett, DDB, and Grey. This latest news follows the departure of Kim Douglas, president of Merkle ANZ, who left last week after just five months with Dentsu’s CX unit with media reports citing 'behavioural issues'. Muddle has assumed Douglas’ responsibilities.

Foot Locker has appointed Mindshare to its ANZ media planning and buying account following a competitive pitch. The agency will be responsible for performance and campaign media planning and buying for Foot Locker in the Australian and New Zealand markets, including strategic, data-led media planning, activation, optimisation, and measurement.

Sixgun has announced a digital partnership with Sea Shepherd Australia. The Melbourne-based digital marketing agency will be managing paid social media advertising to increase the reach and awareness of the conservation organisation’s advocacy and fundraising efforts. The Sea Shepherd win follows a number of client wins by Sixgun over the past year, including Yarra Valley Water and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Smirnoff has named global star Troye Sivan as its new 'chief vibes officer' (CVO) as part of a new multi-year partnership. The collaboration debuted on social media and will extend to Smirnoff's sponsorship of Sivan's upcoming Australia and New Zealand tour. Fans can look forward to exclusive after-parties in Sydney and Melbourne, where Sivan will bring the 'Go-Off' vibes to life.

M&C Saatchi Performance has appointed Felicia Kawilarang as its new strategic growth advisor. She was the previous CMO of Halodoc, Indonesia’s first digital healthcare platform. She also worked as business manager at VML and management consultant at Accenture before joining Halodoc. 

Amplify, a global creative agency, bolsters its senior talent line up with new appointments.

• Lucinda O’Brien has been promoted to strategy director. O’Brien returned to Amplify Australia; prior to this, she spent more than five years in Los Angeles working at Zehner (now The Stable).
• The agency also has hired Domenic Scriva in the newly created role of culture executive. Scriva is new to the marketing industry and comes from a creative background as a trained performer and writer. The role is responsible for the in-depth research and knowledge of trends and talent in the cultural space. 

Match & Wood, an independent Australian media agency, has appointed Liam Loan-Lack to the newly created role of chief commercial and strategy officer. He was most recently chief commercial officer for Australia’s second-largest stockbroker, CMC Markets. Loan-Lack has held senior positions both in agency at Interpublic Group, across the UK, US and Australia, and client-side roles, such as the CMO of My Muscle Chef. Loan-Lack, who will be based in Perth, will oversee Match & Wood’s operations in Western Australia and be responsible for driving strategic growth nationally through the creation of new agency products, elevating client relationships, and helping deliver commercial outcomes for clients.