People

Once again, our tipsters were on the money. Sources familiar with the matter confirm that James Cooper is leaving his post as JWT Chief Creative Innovation Officer to focus on projects outside of advertising. Cooper joined JWT’s NY office in October 2010 after stints at Saatchi and Saatchi and Dare, London.

In a post on his personal Tumblr, Cooper says, “It’s no secret that to anyone that follows me that I have been wanting to do something more entrepreneurial for a while. So this summer I am taking some time out from advertising to do just that.”

Meanwhile, in a statement, JWT says, “JWT New York and James Cooper are parting ways at the end of the month. He’ll be focusing on some of his entrepreneurial projects, primarily Thompson Punke, a ping pong clothing brand which he has recently launched with Red Antler. He’s also planning to write the third book to be published by Creative Social.”

While we’re on the topic, might as well tell you that sources familiar with the matter confirm that Bryan Le has returned to his old stomping grounds at New York-based digital shop (or “trendy video game ad agency“) Rokkan. Le initially spent a year or so at Rokkan as a designer a few years back, but now, he’s moving up the ladder and rejoining the agency as creative director. Prior to his second tour of duty at said shop, Le spent the last two years at HUGE, where he last served as an art director.

After a one-year stint at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Sergio Mugnaini is moving on to a fellow Bay Area branch, namely AKQA, where he will assume a creative director post. Mugnaini’s primary focus will be on AKQA SF’s Audi of America account. The creative is no stranger to the automaker’s biz as he worked on efforts such as “Robots” for the automaker while at AlmapBBDO, where he spent the majority of his career (seven years, give or take). During his career, Mugnaini has also worked at the likes of Ogilvy and JWT.

Oy, not the best way to end the day but got word that Drew Putzel, who has spent the last four years as a producer at Publicis, has died unexpectedly. Our friend Joel Simon of JSM Music sent us this note:

“The NY advertising community lost a wonderful person yesterday.  He was a dear friend to all that had the privilge of knowing him.  His name is Drew Putzel and was a producer at Publicis/NY.  All I know is that it was an accident that happened last night in NY.  Just thought you would like to know.  He was a stellar human being who was loved by all.  I believe he was around 27 years old.”

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Donna Biernadski, who joined Digitas at the beginning of the year as SVP/marketing for Team Sprint, is leaving the agency for the time being. We won’t specify things, but we’ll tell you Biernadski has spent 25 years in the industry, working as VP or SVP in some form at the likes of Wunderman, RAPP and Euro RSCG. The exec spent the majority of her career, though, at DDB, where she had a 15-year run and last served as VP/account director. From what we’ve been told by sources, Biernadski will “be transitioning likely within the next couple of weeks.” Due to the sensitivity of the matter, just play nice, people.

Well, guess Hyundai agency Innocean has finally found a replacement for Jeff Spiegel as the Huntington Beach, CA shop has announced that Greg Braun has now taken over as executive creative director. If you remember, Braun parted ways, we suppose, with Team Detroit’s Pulse unit, which he co-founded and where he served as president/ECD for three years. During his career, Braun spent two years as EVP/ECD at Y&R Detroit and six as GCD at Saatchi & Saatchi. Now at Innocean, Braun will be spearheading efforts for, yes, Hyundai Motor America. We’re not sure, though, if Braun can handle being a Chicago White Sox fan in Dodgers country.

If you don’t know the name Joe Burke, well now you know as the man who was a founding partner at Element 79 is now SVP/executive creative director of MARC USA’s Chicago office. The 20-year ad vet spent nine of those at Element 79 and ran the agency’s Gatorade business, taking the lead on spots for the brand such as “Michael Jordan vs. Mia Hamm.”

Prior to taking on the reins at Element 79, Burke spent 18 months as a creative director at DDB Chicago, where he worked on accounts such as Capital One. Anyhow, here was an internal memo sent to MARC staff this morning regarding Burke, who will take his post effective immediately.

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Pictured to your left is Grant Spanier, a young UX intern at the Minneapolis office of Digitaria (formerly known as JWT Minneapolis). While Grant has yet to do much of note since he got hired last Friday, the process that he went through to attain his new job is quite bizarre.

You see, the Twin Cities are home to terrible professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams. So, when watching old VHS tapes of The Mighty Ducks gets boring, Minnesotans have to get creative with the most mundane of tasks in order to stave off depression. That’s why for the past two years, the Minneapolis Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) has allowed local agencies to select interns by putting young marketing hopefuls through a process that looks a lot like “The Dating Game.” Agencies taking part in the 2012 edition of the InternGame were Digitaria, Periscope, Pixel Farm Digital, 3 Deep and The Nerdery.

After phone-screening a slew of interviewees, MIMA cuts the field down to 15, five categories of three competitors. Then, interested agencies grill interviewees with three questions to see who’s the best candidate for their internship openings. This year, Digitaria’s director of UX (and MIMIA VP) Jason Kleckner interviewed three potential interns, two on stage and one (Spanier) via Skype from a Starbucks in New York. So, what three answers for Kleckner won Spanier the internship? Read a transcript of Digitaria’s contribution to the InternGame after the jump.

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Sources familiar with the matter confirm that after a year or so of service, Bob Wiesner is no longer regional talent director at Saatchi & Saatchi Americas. Wiesner, who was based out of the agency’s New York office, kicked off his career at Hanes Corp, working with agencies such as DDB and BBDO along the way. Wiesner also launched his own consultancy called Executive Persuasion Group along the way. We’ve been told by sources that a search for his successor at Saatchi is underway.

We’ll guesstimate that around six months ago we told you the saga of one Justin Gignac, a self-described “New York City artist, entrepreneur and recovering advertising art director,” who teamed up with current Draftfcb Orange County creative director Adam Tompkins and decided to hook up freelancers with potential employers called “Working Not Working.” Now, after several months in beta, the man behind a few other interesting projects tells us that WNW is now a “curated community of over 700 top freelance creatives and more than 200 hirers signed up, we’re ready.” Ok kids, let the video above explain and go forth here.