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Starcom MediaVest appoints Andrew Swinand president of global operations
Swinand moves from Denuo with the mandate to increase the quality of SMG’s operations across continents
Andrew Swinand has been appointed president of global operations, a recently created role at Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG). The new position is designed to increase the effectiveness of operations in the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, West Asia and Africa.
Swinand will report directly to Laura Desmond, who was appointed global chief executive officer of SMG in June. Swinand will continue to oversee the Nintendo account, handled by both Starcom Worldwide and Leo Burnett.
Apart from his management responsibilities, Swinand will be responsible for creating new client-facing service models across the network and general expansion of the technology practice. He will also be responsible for facilitating the entire SMG network to use the digital resources available, such as the recently launched VivaKi operating model. VivaKi combines the scale of autonomous operations of Digitas, Starcom MediaVest, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia to develop new services, tools and partnerships.
Andrew Swinand |
Swinand joins SMG from Denuo, a media future consultancy and a Publicis Groupe company. Prior to that, he was president of Starcom Worldwide. He helped secure the Samsung business while at Starcom and he was also involved in building a global technology practice. He has also developed accountability metrics to measure returns on objective (ROO) for their client investments. This activity was backed by Starcom's media research team.
In an official communiqué, Desmond says, "Andrew's experience, successes and global perspective ideally qualify him to assume the newly created global role of president, Starcom MediaVest Group."
Swinand started his career as an account supervisor at BBDO in Los Angeles. Then, he was the brand manager for P&G's beauty care segment, before moving on to Reflect.com, where he was the marketing director.
Swinand talks about his new role through an official communiqué: "I have seen the power of the SMG network firsthand and my job will be to provide all our leaders with the right resources and opportunities to grow their business by growing client businesses."
Swinand's work has been recognised globally. He has been featured in various influential magazines such as Advertising Age, Mediaweek, Media and Internationalist.