People on the Move

Havas Worldwide has appointed Beth Pasciucco to serve as managing director, global financial services practice leader, and global client lead. Pasciucco will focus on developing innovative growth strategies, acquisition marketing, and brand and customer experiences across the financial sector and beyond, and will also have responsibility for key client relationships. Based out of the network’s New York headquarters, Pasciucco will report to Havas Creative Group and Havas Worldwide CEO Andrew Benett.

Pasciucco’s appointment reflects Havas’ commitment to providing clients with top-notch, diverse talent to meet the ever-changing world of marketing. Her hire is part of Havas’s strategy to create best-in-class practice areas focused on developing innovation, best practices, and thought leadership.

“Our goal is to help our clients grow their businesses into the future, and we are always looking at new ways to do that. Beth’s excellent track record in building brands in complex categories—including the financial sector—and her expertise in helping brands cultivate customer relationships, will be of great benefit to our clients,” Benett said.

Prior to joining Havas, Pasciucco was managing director and head of brand management and customer experience at AXA. Her previous experience includes serving as chief marketing officer, global wealth management group at Morgan Stanley and as a managing director, director of institutional marketing at Putnam Investments. She was named a worldwide partner and the director of global marketing for a division of Mercer Consulting, and also held the most senior marketing position at Fidelity Investments for Fidelity Personal Investments, managing the brand and retail promotion to individual investors.

“The move to Havas represents not just the next step in my career, but also a homecoming,” said Pasciucco, who began her career on the ad agency side of the business at Arnold Worldwide, a Havas Creative Group agency. “Havas looks very different now, with its bold ambition to create the most integrated client offering available anywhere.”

Pasciucco holds a BA in English from College of the Holy Cross and is a member of the Board of Trustees for Next Step Foundation, Cambridge, MA. 

Oscar-winning visual effects and creative content studio Framestore has tapped Derek Macleod-Veilleux as executive producer in New York. Macleod-Veilleux’s focus will be on sales, account management and strategic development, while also working closely with the production teams, offering pipeline support across all projects.  He will work collaboratively with Luis Ribeiro, who joined Framestore in December as EP with a focus on business development for VFX, digital/VR and design; Sarah Hiddlestone, head of VFX production, integrated advertising; and James Razzall, who was promoted last year to the North American sales umbrella-role of sr. EP, based out of Los Angeles. Macleod-Veilleux will report directly to Jon Collins, president of integrated advertising, worldwide, and Jonathan Shipman, head of integrated production.

The hire comes at a time of steady growth across Framestore’s commercials division in the U.S. The company recently increased its leadership team headcount--in addition to the hire of Ribeiro, other recent additions from the past few months have included Jennifer Siegel and John Duffin as EPS of Framestore Pictures, a live action production company under the Framestore umbrella, in New York and Los Angeles.

“Dez initially began working with us on a freelance basis, but we quickly saw that his rich background and diverse experience with stellar brands and directors would make him a major asset full time,” said Collins.

Macleod-Veilleux started his career in Sydney, Australia, at visual effects companies Cutting Edge and Oscar-winning Animal Logic. When he came to the U.S. he worked as an EP at The Mill NY, where he worked with directors such as Nicolai Fuglsig, Rupert Saunders, and Filip Engstrom; and brands such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mercedes, Maybelline and Ford. Macleod-Veilleux was most recently head of production at MPC, where he was instrumental in building out their New York and Mexico City Offices. He was also the EP on their award winning Dell “Thomas” spot and Dish’s “Hopper” campaign working with directors such as Raf Wathion, Björn Rühmann, Noam Murro, Renny Maslow and The Guard Bros.

First Wave TV, headed by exec producer Justin Havlik, has signed director Rik Cordero for U.S. representation. His spots and branded content span the likes of Nike, PepsiCo, Levi Strauss & Co, Heineken, MillerCoors and LG, among others.

Cordero began his career as a music video director, collaborating with artists including Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Nas, and The Roots. Most recently, Cordero directed “Am I Wrong,” the official branded music project for Pepsi Pulse from artists Nico & Vinz. Cordero comes to First Wave from Robot Films.

Cordero’s fascination with filmmaking began early, experimenting with techniques using a household camera as a child. He later swapped a prestigious engineering education for art school, sparking a love for Adobe that would not waver. After spending four years post-graduation as a motion graphics designer, he jumped behind the camera for a no-budget feature and was immediately hooked on directing. His work gained widespread attention when he shot the viral trailer for Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” album. Since then, Cordero has collaborated with major artists from Nas to Snoop Dogg, earning a number of accolades including a 2009 BET Award and a 2013 Japan VMA Award for directing. In 2012, Cordero bridged over to the branded space, quickly earning industry recognition for his American Advertising Federation Award-winning “Where I’m From” campaign for the U.S. Marine Corps out of JWT Atlanta, and his Nike Basketball documentary, The World is Watching out of Spike DDB, that takes an authentic snapshot on the culture of NYC street ball. 

Mixed-media production studio Roger--under the aegis of founder/creative director Terry Lee--has hired Dane Macbeth as creative director and promoted producer Brandon Stevenson to head of production. The appointments come as Roger continues expanding its creative footprint in broadcast while adding content creation to its menu of services.

Macbeth started his career as an animator/designer at Framework LA, where he worked on film titles, trailers, production logos, broadcast design and reality show packages. He went on to freelance for creative agencies Big Star, Laundry, King and Country, Metaphrenie, Troika, Big Block Design Group, Digital Domain, Buck, and Roger.

From design and animation to creative direction and art direction, Macbeth has assumed many roles contributing to award-winning and noteworthy projects: the main titles for “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer;” trailers for “Spider-Man” and “Spider-Man 3;” and network rebrands for Lifetime and Nickelodeon, among scores more film and TV clients. His lengthy list of advertising clients include BMW, Sony, Toyota, Honda, Burger King, and Xbox, to name a handful.

Macbeth says he was initially drawn to Roger after seeing its “Kids’ Choice Awards” promo for Nickelodeon, which featured host Jack Black and “just about every animation technique known at the time.” Fittingly, his first project with Roger was for Nickelodeon.

Stevenson began his industry career at Roger, starting as an entry-level coordinator before moving up to produce smaller jobs. As the company grew, so did Stevenson, who has since produced many large-scale projects via Roger. His notable commercial jobs include campaigns for UTA and Constant Contact; and Stevenson’s broadcast credits includes the Lifetime network rebrand, as well as the “Chopper” and “SnoBots” promos for Disney XD.