New management strength for Mediabrands with Burford joining UM as chief strategy officer
One of Australia’s most highly regarded media strategists, Stefan Burford (pictured), is joining UM as chief strategy officer to lead the agency’s strategy team as a part of new senior management developments at UM and parent company Mediabrands Australia.
Henry Tajer, executive chairman of Mediabrands Australia, said the new appointments had the dual purposes of resourcing UM with the best talent in the industry and to further focus Mediabrands’ senior management on coordinating and leveraging its capabilities for the maximum benefit of clients.
Tajer announced that Travis Johnson, managing director of UM Sydney and Daniel Isaac, UM chief strategy officer, have been appointed commercial directors for Mediabrands NSW and Victoria respectively.
Says Tajer: “Daniel and Travis are two of our most experienced and effective executives with proven success records. They have already delivered significant value to Mediabrands businesses and have led many clients into broader communications areas that have deepened our business relationships and positively impacted their business results.”
The Isaac and Johnson appointments are effective July 1st 2011.
Wendy Gower, group director at UM has been appointed general manager of UM Sydney and replaces Johnson. Burford will take over from Isaac as chief strategy officer of UM at a date to be confirmed.
Tajer added that both he and UM CEO Mat Baxter were very excited that Stefan Burford was joining the agency.
Says Baxter: “I had the privilege to work alongside Stefan at MediaCom and he’s without a doubt the best strategist I’ve worked with. It’s probably not a big surprise that I’m thrilled we’ve got someone with such enormous talent to come and lead UM’s strategic product.”
Burford is currently group strategy director at MediaCom and previously worked for Mediaedge:CIA in London. In 2010, he was named B&T’s young achiever of the year and Campaign Asia magazine’s media planner of the year for Australia and New Zealand.
In addition to UM, Mediabrands Australia also houses media communications agency Initiative and specialist businesses including MagnaGlobal (investment intelligence), Reprise Media (SEM, SEO and social media), Orion (barter) and Ensemble (branded entertainment). New entities will be added to the Mediabrands portfolio in the near and longer term.