Media Movers: Luke Girgis, Mike Napolitano, Liz Harper, Alex Sol Watts, Michael Desiere

AIC - Media Movers
Mediaweek - Media Movers

Matt Kaufman joined Amazon Web Services, Starcom made key hires, and Catalano’s View Media Group made five leadership appointments.

Mediaweek’s Media Movers charts the biggest people moves in the industry over the past week.

This week:

Luke Girgis left The Brag Media as publisher and managing director, six months after he sold the business to Vinyl Group in a $10m deal.

DDB promoted its Melbourne MD, Mike Napolitano, to the newly-created role of Melbourne Group CEO.

Mediaweek revealed Vanessa Boueyres was appointed managing partner on the Westpac account at DDB Sydney, replacing Sasha Firth.
 
Former Meta Australia partner Liz Harper joined Australian startup Springboards.ai as director of agency partnerships. She was the creative agency partner at Meta Australia for just under five years.

Matt Kaufman joined Amazon Web Services as head of marketing across Australia and New Zealand after 11 years spent at Google, most recently as marketing director, global experiential marketing.

Alex Sol Watts joined independent communications agency Poem as executive director of social and strategy. He joins the agency after a recent stint freelancing. Last year, he was a partner at the creative agency Bullfrog, opening and leading its Sydney office.

News Corp Australia’s head of sales – NSW independent agencies and major direct, Michael Desiere, announced he was leaving the business after 22 years.

Michael Wilkins, managing director of national sport brands, and Marcus Hooke, general manager of print production, will also exit News Corp as part of its ongoing restructure.
 
Seven Network appointed Mark Mooney as 7NEWS Adelaide’s news director, replacing Chris Salter, who was recently appointed director of news in Seven Melbourne to fill the vacancy left by Shaun Menegola.

Apparent appointed Simon Pugh as chief media officer to lead and grow the independent agency’s media offering in Australia and around the world.
 
Yahoo hired Maddie Basso in the newly-created role of head of commercial. She joins after seven years at Captify, where she was head of sales.
 
Orchard promoted practice lead, Hannah Bissex, to the newly-created role of managing partner – health to support and strengthen its healthcare marketing division.
 
Channel Factory promoted Georgina Gellert to director of marketing and people strategy across AUNZ.
 
Starcom appointed Scott McCaffrey as chief client and growth officer and promoted Jacqui Purcell to national head of planning.
 
GumGum appointed Niall Hogan as general manager of JAPAC, as it plans to expand across the region.
 
Antony Catalano
‘s View Media Group made five leadership appointments including Sian Rowlands as MD, financial services and Damon Pezaro as chief product officer. Jordy Catalano moved into the role of director of consumer services and markets, Barrie Bowles was appointed as digital and data director, and Emily Rayner hired as head of content.
 
Enthral appointed Mark Tompkins as its new creative director. Tompkins brings more than 20 years of experience to the agency, having worked in Australia and London with TBWA, DDB, Clemenger, and Ogilvy.
 
The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, nabbed Lennie Galloway and Thomas Gledhill from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners as associate creative directors. The duo return to Australia after a four-year stint at the San Fransisco full-service agency.

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