LOS ANGELES: Filling a post vacant since July, Ketchum has signed a corporate communications executive at one of its clients as director of the Los Angeles and Sacramento offices.
LOS ANGELES: Filling a post vacant since July, Ketchum has signed a
corporate communications executive at one of its clients as director of
the Los Angeles and Sacramento offices.
Sean Fitzgerald, who begins his new job January 3, replaces Dave De
Pinto, who left this summer to take the CEO spot at San Diego-based
independent Stoorza Ziegaus & Metzger (PRWeek, August 2). He will report
to San Francisco director Jon Higgins and will be stationed in Ketchum’s
LA outpost, which serves as HQ for the agency’s Mattel, Level One and
Acura business.
For the past three years, Fitzgerald has served as VP of corporate
responsibility and global issues management at Mattel. Prior to that, he
worked for Levi Strauss & Co. from 1993 to 1996, where he oversaw the
jean company’s heralded ’Global Success Sharing Program.’
Fitzgerald, who also spent more than five years at Golin-Harris/LA as an
SVP of the firm’s West Coast corporate practice, said he cherishes the
return to agency life. ’I really started to miss the energy of the
agency world,’ he said. ’This position offers me a great opportunity to
participate in Ketchum’s growth.’
De Pinto left for Stoorza amid a swirl of controversy. While one source
within Ketchum had said that De Pinto’s management style had rubbed
several agency higher-ups the wrong way, Ketchum senior
partner/president Dave Drobis described him as ’a valued partner’ and
told PRWeek in a letter that ’David’s decision to leave Ketchum was
accepted reluctantly by us.’
Higgins, who has filled the LA/Sacramento post on an interim basis, will
continue in that role until Fitzgerald arrives in January.
