Nir Refuah is moving to McCann New York as executive creative technology director, focusing on developing technology-driven creative content and communications solutions. Refuah was most recently general manager and chief innovation officer at MRM//McCann Romania where he led the agency to be the #1 Romanian digital creative agency, winning more than 50 awards and developing creative work for brands including KFC, Nespresso and MasterCard. Refuah has developed award-winning campaigns for brands like Unilever, Coca-Cola and KFC. He won a Grand Prix, four Gold Lions and Media Agency of the Year at the 2015 Eurobest festival, as well as four Lions at the 2016 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. During his early years in Israel, Refuah founded Othello, the first Israeli social network and was one of the founders of Walla Communication, Israel’s Leading web portal. In 2008, Refuah became VP, creative director at McCann Tel Aviv, contributing to the development of the digital advertising and interaction strategies for the agency’s brands. He became chief innovation officer at MRM//McCann Romania in 2013….
Stop-motion animation maestro PES, who recently earned a primetime commercial Emmy nomination for Honda’s “Paper” produced by RESET for agency RPA, has shifted his UK/European representation from Academy to Blinkink. The director continues to be repped in the U.S. by RESET. PES adds the Emmy nod to an Academy Award nomination back in 2013 for his short film Fresh Guacamole….
Sr. VFX supervisor Shawn Hillier has joined the creative team at the Vancouver office of FuseFX. Hillier arrives following a 15-year stint at Industrial Light & Magic, where he contributed to such blockbusters as Jurassic World, Pacific Rim, Star Trek, Transformers, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and all three titles in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In his new role, he will supervise visual effects production for television projects including the Syfy series The Magicians and Dark Matter. Hillier joined ILM in San Francisco as a sequence supervisor in 2001. Beginning in 2008, he spent part of his time each year training artists at ILM’s Singapore. He joined that office on a fulltime basis in 2012 as CG supervisor, setting up the compositing pipeline for the Digital Feature group, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore. A native of Quebec, Hillier began his career with Dome Productions, Toronto. Also joining FuseFX, Vancouver, is compositing supervisor Maya Roza. Arriving from a similar position with Double Negative, Vancouver, Roza brings more than 10 years of experience in visual effects, with credits including The Huntsman, The Fifth Wave, Jurassic World, Chappie¸ Elysium¸ Fast & Furious 6 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1. A graduate of the Art Institute of Vancouver, she has also held staff posts at Image Engine Design, Prime Focus World and Atomic Cartoons….
