Wunderman ANZ lures ex-Lavender CD Anna Karena for executive creative director role
Andrew Davie, managing director of Wunderman Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), has appointed Anna Karena as executive creative director, effective immediately.
Karena will work closely with Wunderman ANZ’s national creative director, Shanan Goldring, to champion the agency’s priority of delivering world-class, data-driven creative solutions to meet clients’ communication challenges.
A digital and direct native, Karena joins Wunderman after spending the last 15 years with Lavender in Sydney–the last 5 of which were served as creative director. Karena is an impressively awarded creative leader, with both local and international awards, including a Caples first place, multiple Gold Midas awards and the ADMA Grand Prix. She has judged on a global scale and has developed great expertise, knowledge and partnerships across all of the major sectors in Australia. Some of the key brands she has contributed to include Westpac, St.George, IKEA, American Express, the RTA and Telstra.<!– /* Font Definitions */@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}@page WordSection1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}
Says Davie: “I am absolutely thrilled to have someone of Anna’s caliber and immense creative and storytelling ability join the Wunderman ANZ team. She is a proven leader, hands-on and teams gravitate toward her. She also has terrific senior client and agency respect in the industry for her work. I am 100 percent convinced this combination will be a powerful one for our broader team, our core management group and, most importantly, our clients.”
Says Karena: “Wunderman is beautifully positioned to deliver the kind of data- and service-led marketing that today’s clients and their customers are buying. Backed by global firepower, applied through a locally sensitive filter, it’s an offering that’s truly formidable in the Australia-NZ market. I’m so excited to be joining this team, at this time. There’s great chemistry amongst the execs–we’re already tight.”
The addition of Karena completes the Wunderman ANZ leadership team, which includes Dom Hickey as head of planning and Roc Bates as general manager across Australia.
Says Lincoln Bjorkman, global chief creative officer, Wunderman: “Anna is a leader, an inspirer and a hardcore direct and digital creative innovator. I’m thrilled to have her award-winning skills and experience brought to bear on our entire global creative network, starting in Australia. She is an extraordinary talent and a wonderful creative partner. I cannot wait to see what she does next.”
22 Comments
Congrats Anna. Great Hire Wunderman.
Thought Wunderman had just slowly faded away in to the night?
Those Wunderman copy decks will be perfect in no time. Ideas, not so much.
Congratulations Anna! Wunderman are lucky to have you on board, a great hire for the agency.
One of many good people to flee the Lav insanity recently.
The ‘ideas’ you speak of mr down the lav (and we know who you are) are for adland fossils, barely employable in the new era – because of their fascination with themselves, instead of their actual jobs.
And long term bitterness aint good for the soul either.
Lavender are in real trouble now with the leadership they have in place. Smart move Wunderman.
Congrats Anna. About time you stepped up and out of the Lavender shadow. Very talented creative.
Congrats Anna. And congrats Wunderman – great hiring!
Congrats Anna, always loved working with you. Wunderman are lucky to have you.
So ideas are no longer needed in the new era of adland ajb? Good luck with that one buddy, you’re going to need it.
Congrats, great hire for Wunderman, Anna is great to have around. While it’s a loss for Lavender, the agency remain strong believe me.
Congrats AK. Wunderman are lucky to have scored such a great creative leader.
Not a comma, full stop, coordinating conjunction, semi-colon, grammatical error or linguistic redundancy – anywhere! That’s why she’s the best CD in the business. Go girl, you’re the best.
Congratulations Anna, well deserved after years of polishing everyone else’s turds.
Well done, AK! You’re a star.
Congratulations, well done.
Yeah spotless copy decks. Just what you need from an ECD.
Hello, thanks so much from all my wonderful peops – my lovely family at Lavender and new global team at Wunderman.
And believe me, I’m about a lot more than copydecks. Message is key in our market today. It’s what powers UX. It’s what brings strategy most powerfully to the customer. It’s what accurately positions in market the greatest tech inventions.
And to all those who signed off with something close to their real name, courage is so much more admirable than criticism.
Cheers
AK
congrats anna wunderman is lucky to have you
All the best Anna. In time you’ll start misspelling the work ‘wonder’. I did. 😉
Why does ‘ajb’ know who ‘down the lav’ is. Does this website pass on anonymous poster’s identities to its mates? Pretty goddamn revolting if that’s what happened. Any comments on privacy policy please Lynchy?