Weber Shandwick Adds Strategic, Creative, Media and Digital Hires 

“Our clients are asking us to provide them with a wide range of business solutions,” said Cathy Calhoun, president of North America. “We are laser-focused on bringing new, transformative talent into the firm to work with our stellar existing teams to deliver those innovative cross-platform solutions. We’ve been able to attract outstanding talent from outside of the PR industry because people are excited about our client roster and the abundance of opportunity to do interesting work. And because of our collaborative business model, we can tap talent from across the U.S. and put them to work for our entire client portfolio.”

 

Ben Kalevitch joins the firm as senior vice president, strategy; Curt Doty will serve as a senior vice president, west coast Digital and creative services; Stephanie Holbrook, joins as a senior vice president of Corporate and Digital; Dan Jividen will serve Weber Shandwick as an associate creative director; and Corey Thibodeau joins as director of media strategy.

Ben Kalevitch, Senior Vice President, Strategy
Bringing deep experience in corporate, marketing, innovation and portfolio strategy, business transformation and organizational effectiveness, Kalevitch joins the firm as senior vice president, strategy. Previously with the Monitor Group, he was involved in high-impact consulting engagements with Fortune 500 companies, many in the consumer and healthcare sectors. He will collaborate with client teams to bolster strategic rigor, deliver engaging ideas and other programming to help drive growth and business results. Based in the New York office, he will partner with executive vice president Josh Gilbert and will report to Jill Murphy, chief business development officer.

 

Curt Doty, Senior Vice President, Digital and Creative Services
Doty will focus on the continued build-out of the agency’s digital and creative operations and brings more than 25 years of experience in developing advanced content for a range of creative-minded businesses including Bemis Balkind, Trailer Park, Universal Pictures and Pittard Sullivan. In this role, Doty will scale a diverse team that includes information architects, designers, editors, front and back-end developers and producers to deliver highly engaging content for client campaigns. Doty will report to Digital president, Chris Perry and he will be based in the Weber Shandwick Los Angeles office.

Stephanie Holbrook, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Digital
Also joining the agency is Holbrook, who will serve as a senior vice president of Corporate and Digital. She will be based in Los Angeles but will support corporate clients on the west coast and beyond. Holbrook brings deep expertise integrating public relations, digital media and influencer engagement into highly visible programs for clients like Qualcomm, Microsoft, Demand Media and Warner Bros. Most recently she was head of global communications for Tapjoy.  She will report to Executive Vice President, Bill Reihl and Digital president, Chris Perry.

 

Dan Jividen, Associate Creative Director
Jividen joins Weber Shandwick as an associate creative director and will be based in Chicago. Jividen comes to the firm from Leo Burnett/Arc Worldwide where he created TV, print and digital work for an array of clients including Blackberry, Whirlpool, Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s. He will report to Jim Paul, executive creative director in Chicago, and work on creative assignments across the breadth of the firm’s consumer clients. Additionally, he will contribute content and provide creative oversight for select social communities.

 

Corey Thibodeau, Director of Media Strategy
Additionally, Thibodeau joins Weber Shandwick as director of media strategy, based in the New York office, reporting to Jason Wellcome, executive vice president of Digital. He will be instrumental in providing momentum behind a more specialized focus around paid media planning and execution for social and content marketing initiatives. He hails from sports technology startup SeatGeek where he oversaw all advertising sales and operations. Prior to his time at SeatGeek, he helped open Facebook ad API partner, TBG Digital’s operations in New York. While there, he oversaw large social ad spends from companies such as L’Oreal and Comcast as the director of business development. He entered the social media marketing world as one of the first members of Buddy Media’s account management team and managed key accounts during the company’s substantial growth phase.