Revolving Door Roster Updates: Alma, Oliver, Strawberry Frog & More

The leaves are changing, and so are agencies’ rosters. Fall brings a new wave of promotions, new hires, and appointments to agencies, platforms and organizations in the industry.

180 Global

180 Global, the Omnicom-owned creative boutique with offices in L.A., New York, and Amsterdam, has announced that Sander Volten, its chief executive officer, will be stepping down from his role at the end of 2024. After eight transformative years with the agency, Volten has decided to pursue new opportunities outside the advertising industry. During his tenure, 180 Global achieved substantial growth, opening a New York office in 2021 and establishing bespoke partnerships with sister Omnicom agency, TBWA, in several markets including MENA and APAC. Starting in January 2025, 180’s global leadership will sit between its hubs in the U.S. and Amsterdam, led by U.S. CEO, Agathe Guerrier, who took up the role in 2021 having previously been the CSO for TBWA Worldwide, and Stephen Corlett, who was appointed CEO of the Amsterdam office in January 2024.

AbelsonTaylor Group

Healthcare advertising and marketing firm AbelsonTaylor Group has hired Antonio Rivera, a seasoned omnichannel engagement expert, as director of engagement strategy. He will create dynamic engagement strategies for a diverse range of clients.

Adam&eveBerlin

Kreuzberg-based creative agency adam&eveBerlin is boosting its creative department by hiring Christina Rankel, most recently senior copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam for the role of creative director.

Ad Club of New England

The Ad Club of New England, the trade association for the New England marketing and communications industry, has appointed George Sargent as its new chairman of the board. Sargent is CEO of Boston-based advertising agency Arnold, a Havas Creative Group company. He will replace Andrew Graff, CEO of Allen & Gerritsen, and Barbara Goose, CMO of Rocket Software.

Alma

Alma has hired Julie L. Andrews as head of business leadership, reporting to Ana Bermudez, svp managing director. Andrews joins from R/GA where she was vp, managing director. Andrews also spent time as head of delivery and client operations at Virtue Worldwide. She will oversee and drive the direction of the agency’s business leadership team.

Apollo Partners

Apollo Partners, the fast-growing, independent, full-service media agency, announces the appointment of Noel Johnson as head of growth and marketing, marking the latest strategic addition to the agency’s leadership team. The new position was created to support Apollo Partner’s rapid growth over the past two years.

Bear

Bear, a future-forward digital commerce agency, has announced new integrated positioning and enhanced digital-solutions capabilities that empower brands to scale and grow, with the addition of executive-level brand and design innovator Mick McCarthy as chief design officer (CDO). 

BETC

BETC announces the promotion of Anne-Laure Brunner and Guillaume Espinet, to vice presidents of the agency. Brunner and Espinet have both played a key role in BETC’s development, especially while leading international clients. Brunner, already in charge of Disneyland Paris and La Roche-Posay, takes over the Danone International account, while Espinet is in charge of the Saudi Tourism, Michelin and Riyadh Air accounts.

Billups

Billups, an independent out-of-home managed services agency, has appointed Claudia Valderrama as global chief operating officer, and Ben Milne as chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region. Both are new roles and are part of a significant company expansion that has included the launch of new OOH measurement capabilities based on patented technology, the acquisition of four OOH agencies worldwide in the past year, and 123% revenue growth over the past three years.

Bob’s Your Uncle

James Kang has joined Toronto-based independent agency Bob’s Your Uncle as head of business development. Kang brings a wealth of client-side experience, combined with a deep knowledge of how to help brands grow rapidly and strategically win business.

Bond

Bond has appointed new members to its executive team. Aaron Worsham joins as chief technology officer, Mike Valeriati joins as chief financial officer and Jeff Tate has been named vice president of marketing. These strategic hires reflect Bond’s continuous global growth and its plans for further expansion.

Gravity Global

Full-service agency Gravity Global has hired Neil Domanovic as director of analytics and Josephine Son as group account director. Domanovic will lead the analytics arm for Gravity Global, guiding the strategy, development, and execution of the agency’s data infrastructure, including modeling and insights. Son will oversee account management for a number of clients including MidFirst Bank and BlueScope.

Fela

Production house Fela welcomed photographer Ro.lexx to its roster of artists in the U.S. and Canada. This marks a moment of creative evolution for Fela as it broadens the scope of its representation from commercial and film directors to still photographers. 

LSG

LSG, an impact agency that helps clients grow, evolve, and protect their brands and reputations, has added Jackeline Stewart-Hawkins as partner. She will spearhead the firm’s new culture + society practice, where she will work with clients across industries to help tackle their business, reputational, and societal challenges.

McCann Worldgroup

McCann Worldgroup has made two key promotions designed to further strengthen its global businesses hubbed out of Detroit. Grant Theron, formerly the global lead for the GM business, has been appointedglobal CEOofMRM, the customer relationship marketing (CRM) brand of the McCann Worldgroup network. Taking over Theron’s responsibilities on GM will be Belinda Leworthy,whohas been elevated to a dual role ofglobal business lead for GM and president, McCann Worldgroup Detroit.

Mechanica

Mechanica has appointed Wade Devers as design director. In his new role, Devers will oversee design and art direction for all of the agency’s clients. He previously spent over 19 years at Arnold Worldwide, where he was executive creative director/managing partner.

Oliver

Oliver, a company made exclusively to design, build, and run in-house agencies and ecosystems for brands, has appointed Ed Lee as executive client partnership director.The former Rapp managing director will join Oliver’s senior leadership team to elevate its client services operation across the U.K.

Open Swim

Open Swim has signed award-winning director/photographer Karen Haberberg for both live-action and live-action/print combo projects, kicking off with a new campaign for Empower Federal Credit Union.

R&CPMK

R&CPMKhas elevated Victoria Greene to head of growth for the agency. In her expanded role, Greene will lead new business and development efforts across R&CPMK’s brand marketing, communications, creative, experiential, and talent and influencer divisions.

Ryff

Ryff, a pioneer of in-scene advertising (ISA) and virtual product placement (VPP), is making moves to drive revenue growth and profitability under recently appointed executive vp of global sales and customer experience, Shirley Richter Hughes. Nicole Winters, Miles Rutter, Samantha Thomson-Hutchins, and Krystal Karter join Ryff in key roles as the company scales to meet demand for its Spheera platform and AI-driven advertising solutions.

Strawberry Frog

StrawberryFrog has appointed Steve Scutellaro general manager. Scutellaro has been managing director at Deep Focus for the past five years. He will join co-chief creative officer Nick Sonderup, who was appointed CCO this summer. Scutellaro worked closely with Sonderup at Pereira O’Dell on Mini Cooper, Timberland, Fox Sports and other brands. This is the first time StrawberryFrog, which celebrates its 25 year anniversary in 2024 has appointed a general manager.

Superside

Superside has hired new vp of sales Alex Bohorquez. He is being tapped to help the design agency grow its footprint in North America, specifically in the Enterprise Tech segment. 

TBWA\Chiat\Day NY

TBWA\Chiat\Day New York has named Meg Piro as its new head of brand experience strategy to build and oversee the agency’s connections, social and data practices. She joins TBWA after spending the last two years consulting in brand marketing and strategy, and acting as the vp of global marketing at Unilever Prestige’s Hourglass Cosmetics.

Tinuiti

Tinuiti, an independent performance marketing agency, has appointed Andrea Snyder as evp, managing director, emerging. Snyder joins Tinuiti from GroupM’s EssenceMediacom, where she was the North American operations lead overseeing the daily operations for The Coca-Cola account.

TripleLift

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across screens, has promoted Jennifer Lee to chief customer officer, where she will oversee all offerings related to customers and clients. Lee is based out of TripleLift’s New York office.

XR Extreme Reach

XR Extreme Reach, a global technology company that integrates data across creative, media, and production, has appointed Kristin Wnuk as senior vice president of enterprise solutions. With a proven track record of driving growth for Roku, Hulu and Madhive, Wnuk will drive adoption of the XR platform and lead sales expansion across global advertisers.