Media Movers: Former Dentsu boss’ new gig, AANA departure, Bastion Creative, Manifest Group, Hopeful Monsters

by Mediaweek

Posted on 9 September 2023

Media Movers takes a look at the recent movements announced across the industry during the week of 4/9/23

Media Movers across the industry include:

• Michael Pachi has been appointed Sydney News Director for 2GB.

• Capability Co, the human potential platform helping enterprises to unleash the full potential of their people, has announced the appointment of Patrick Darcy to the position of chief executive officer.

Darcy, the former Dentsu International chief product officer and chief data & technology officer, joins with a remit to raise investment capital and forge key strategic partnerships to accelerate the growth of the business in Australia and overseas.

• Alexi Demetriadi has joined The Australian as a NSW political reporter.

• Serena Seyfort will start as nine.com.au’s afternoon editor in September.

• Southern Cross Austereo has welcomed Charlotte Italiano as a broadcast journalist, based in Hobart.

• Bastion Creative has welcomed Susan Bird as managing partner to lead their Melbourne operations.

Before joining Bastion, Bird was based as a client partner and general manager at AJF for more than a decade, leading some of AJF’s largest client relationships including Officeworks, Specsavers, Bega and Bendigo Bank.

• Clare Blumer is now editor of innovative storytelling for investigative journalism and current affairs at the ABC.

• Storyful has welcomed James Law as their editor-in-chief, based in News Corp’s headquarters in New York.

• Independent creative agency Hopeful Monsters has announced the appointment of Tegan Knight as their new senior business director.

Knight moves from Activision Blizzard where he spent eight years leading brand communications across ANZ for gaming franchises including Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft and Overwatch.

Knight brings immense experience in the entertainment space to Hopeful Monsters as he has led creative campaigns with athletes across the UFC, A-League, AFL and NRL while his work has also crossed over between gaming, sports and music.

• Luke Mortimer has joined 7NEWS Spotlight as a senior producer.

• Kat Wong has started as a journalist for AAP, working from the Canberra Press Gallery.

• Emma Logan has announced her departure from the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) as its director of member engagement and events.

After more than three years with the industry body, Logan shared that now feels like the right time for her to explore her horizons and consider new opportunities.

Logan said: “I can’t thank everyone enough for your engagement, support and friendship during my time at AANA, ‘this is certainly not goodbye’. It’s been a real privilege to work so closely within our community and connect with so many inspiring leaders to build a better industry.

• Gillian Lantouris is now a crime reporter for 9 News Melbourne, covering for Lana Murphy while she is on maternity leave.

• Yahoo News Australia has welcomed Belinda Grant-Geary as head of finance.

• Coquohalla Connor has joined ABC Broken Hill as a reporter.

• Manifest has announced the appointment of two new non-executive directors to support its continued propositional and geographical expansion.

Sarah Waddington CBE, director at Wadds Inc, and Ete Davies, chief operating officer of Dentsu Creative EMEA, add over four decades of experience to the independent unified creative agency’s senior leadership team, having held senior positions at some of the most well-respected agencies and creative institutions in the world.