Weber Shandwick Hires Digital Veteran Jane Barandes to Co-Lead New York Digital Operations 

NEW YORK, April 11, 2013 – Weber Shandwick announced today that Jane Barandes has joined the firm as general manager and co-Lead for the firm’s fast-growing New York digital operation. In her new position she will work with Jason Wellcome, executive vice president and general manager of the firm’s Mediaco unit, to continue to scale as well as diversify the firm’s digital offerings. New York is one of the firm’s thriving digital centers, encompassing digital strategy, experience design, content strategy and orchestration, social campaigns, community management, and more. She will report to Chris Perry, president of digital and Joy Farber Kolo, deputy general manager of the firm’s New York office.

Weber Shandwick Hires Digital Veteran Jane Barandes to Co-Lead New York Digital Operations

With more than 18 years of experience, Barandes is an accomplished digital agency leader, beginning her career in San Francisco in the early 90s. Most recently she served as 360i’s New York managing director. Prior to that she was senior vice president of marketing at Publicis Modem, where she co-managed the General Mills business, while also driving all digital efforts for the Pillsbury brand.

Jane has an amazing track record developing digital agency competencies, as well as strong client and team leadership talent uniquely suited for today’s dynamic media and marketing environment. Her experience combining digital business strategy with social campaigning and content management expertise will be instrumental in driving client programs as well as our future offerings.

Chris Perry

Chair, Weber Shandwick Futures

On the heels of the recent launch of the Weber Shandwick’s content marketing unit, Mediaco, the firm continues to add a range of talent from editors, writers, and brand planners to user experience designers, SEO experts, media planners and producers.  In addition to Barandes, the firm has recently added the following to the staff mix in New York:

 

  • Brooke Tarnoff as editorial director. She joined the firm from MTV Networks, where she was senior digital editor overseeing editorial for NextMovie.com. Prior to joining MTV, Tarnoff oversaw editorial duties at AOL Entertainment and Hearst Interactive.
  • Hamilton Tamayo as associate creative director. He joins from Digitas where he was an associate creative director on the digital innovation team responsible for helping identify and create new digital brand experiences in channels such as mobile, tablet and IPTV for clients.
With the velocity of transformation taking place in marketing and the subsequent business growth, a highly specialized talent mix is needed to deliver against client needs. We continue to aggressively add new capabilities to our operations, in particular to meet digital, social media and content demands required to deliver campaigns today.

Chris Perry

Chair, Weber Shandwick Futures

About Weber Shandwick Digital

Weber Shandwick’s Digital practice is a fast-growing network within the agency comprising more than 500 digital, social media and content specialists. The firm has received numerous industry awards and was named a “Top 4 Employer for Social Media Professionals” by Mashable. It remains at the forefront of innovation through its proprietary methodologies and applications. The firm recently launched Mediaco, a unit specializing in helping clients apply publishing practices to their communications and marketing programs. Its social crisis simulator, FireBell, is an award-winning, proprietary application that allows clients to participate in real-time online crisis simulation drills in a secure, off the-internet environment. It also introduced Content Fusion, an approach that defines an organization’s own unique storytelling ecosystem by identifying stories that can best be told in each respective format and driving the stories through an ecosystem of traditional, digital, social media and company-owned channels.