Kate Silver promoted to general manager of Leo Burnett Melbourne
New Leo Burnett Australia CEO, Emma Montgomery has promoted Kate Silver to the newly-created role of general manager of Leo Burnett Melbourne.
This appointment sees Silver stepping up from her current role as chief client partner. She will continue to play a role in leading the team across key client partnerships for brands including HBF, Twinings, Transurban, Vitasoy and City of Melbourne, while focusing on evolving the agency’s core creative culture, capabilities and services under the revitalised HumanKind operating system.
Leo Burnett Melbourne’s GM, Kate Silver
Silver joined Leo Burnett Melbourne as a group account director over five years ago from a marketing management role at iSelect. Before that, Silver held positions at AJF and TBWA. More recently, she has led several new business wins including Vitasoy, Saputo and the recent naming of Leo Burnett as national agency of record for HBF Health Insurance with the ‘Don’t settle for a quokka sh*t!’ platform.
Montgomery said of Silver’s promotion: “When looking for a partner for our next stage of change, Silver was a natural choice. She has already proven herself an invaluable champion of our people, our client partners and our product, especially through this extended lockdown. Her empathy, positivity and creativity is exactly what we need as we embark on our next chapter in the Melbourne market.”
Silver said of her promotion: “With new leadership naturally comes new opportunities, and I’m so grateful to help lead our team with Emma at the helm. It’s a pretty exciting time to be part of Leos – we have a very clear view of where and what we want to be for our clients and I’m proud I can be part of something awesome in an agency I love.”
In June, Leo Burnett Australia and Melbourne CEO Melinda Geertz departed the agency, and was replaced by Montgomery, who recently returned to Australia to take up the role of CEO of Leo Burnett Sydney.
In May, Chaka Sobhani was promoted to global chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, after spending five years as CCO of Leo Burnett London.
