UM Melbourne appoint Ivo Kavelji as managing director and Alex Smith as general manager
Kavelj
UM Australia has restructured its Melbourne office, appointing partner Ivo Kavelj as managing director and Alex Smith as general manager.
Mat Baxter, CEO of UM Australia, told Mumbrella: “The jobs are both new positions. We previously had a partnership structure in Melbourne with four partners – Ivo, Alex, David (Hearn) and Kim (Lion).
“We’ve moved now to a structure where we’ll have an MD and GM. Kim is now in a role of head of talent in Melbourne and David remains head of strategy in Melbourne.
“It’s just a management restructure and it elevates Ivo to the MD role so there’s a clear leader in the office. We felt we needed clear leadership in that office, having a clear point of contact both internally and externally we felt was important and something we wanted to do, hence the change.”
The partnership structure was a result of IPG Mediabrands merging UM and MBThree in Melbourne in August last year which saw Kim Lion, managing director of UM Melbourne at the time, Alex Smith, general manager of MBThree, and David Hearn, head of strategy at UM Melbourne, coming together to manage the various aspects of the business.
Kavelji joined the agency in February this year as managing partner and head of investment, and had a background at MediaCom Sydney.
The pair will step into their new roles immediately, with Smith also continuing in her client leadership role.
Miranda Ward
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