OMD Melbourne expands strategy, social and content teams with 4 new senior hires

OMD Melbourne today announced a number of senior hires across strategy and content.

David Trovell joins from Starcom Melbourne as head of strategy. After beginning his career at OMD UK where he rose to associate director, Trovell moved to Melbourne where he has worked as strategy director at Mediacom and, for the last 7 years, Starcom. At Starcom he has worked for clients such as Mars, Holden, Suncorp, National Foods and the Heart Foundation. Trovell is one of Melbourne’s most regarded strategists and certainly one of the most awarded for his work on Mars and National Foods. Trovell replaces Sharon Cookson and starts with OMD on 29th October.

Anjana Mani joins from OMD Auckland as Fuse business director. Originally from a PR background, Mani has worked in OMD Auckland’s Fuse division for the last 5 years and has been business director for the last 18 months, at a time of substantial growth. Like Trovell, Mani is a highly awarded professional with 5 CAANZ awards over the latest 3 years for work with McCain, Nivea & HOTC. This is an incremental role to provide additional senior leadership for OMD Melbourne’s content team and Mani starts on 27th August.

Michelle Lyons joins as social media strategist from MEC London to head up OMD Word in Melbourne. Lyons has extensive experience in social media having worked in this space for over 5 years. Her most recent position was social media director for MEC, Global Solutions in London, where she worked with clients such as CHANEL, Marriott International, Blackrock, Xerox, Dewar’s and Star Alliance to deliver social strategies and activate multi-market campaigns. Lyons started at the beginning of August and her appointment reflects OMD Melbourne’s continued growth in the social media space.

Ilmira Maxutova joins from Initiative Moscow as strategist. Maxutova has been in a range of senior strategy positions in Russia & the Middle East over the last 8 years and has most recently been strategic planning director at Initiative Moscow for the last 2 years. She has developed strategies for a range of major international brands including Carlsberg, Kraft, Coca-Cola, P&G and Samsung.

Says Steve Sinha, managing director of OMD Melbourne: “We continue to invest heavily in strategy and innovation talent and we have been blessed in attracting some great people to OMD. David Trovell has a fantastic reputation in the Melbourne market and will be a great addition to our business. We have been in discussions with Anjana, Michelle and Ilmira for some time and we will scour the world for cutting edge talent to provide expertise in areas of major growth for us. Anjana has been a rising star in the OMD network so we are really pleased she has agreed to join us in Melbourne.”