We’ve been hearing murmurs about this for a couple of weeks and now, sources familiar with the matter confirm that Toni Hess, who most recently served as partner/executive creative director at Rosetta, is no longer with the Publicis Groupe-owned agency. No word from those in the know if there are immediate plans to replace Hess, whose departure comes less than a month after Rosetta and CCO Gary Scheiner parted ways. Hess joined Rosetta nearly four years ago as partner/group creative director within the agency’s creative/customer experience group. Prior to her most recent gig, the New York-based Hess, who’s also taught at the Miami Ad School, spent several years as a GCD at both Draftfcb and JWT.

Yes, Carlos Ricque, VP/executive creative director at Moxie Interactive who worked out of the Zenith Media agency’s New York office, is indeed calling it quits. The agency elaborates, saying, “After three great years at Moxie in both Atlanta and New York, Carlos Ricque has decided to leave the Moxie New York office to pursue his video content creation dreams. He leaves on great terms with the agency.  The creative EVP has said that Carlos is one of the good guys in Creative.  Where Carlos goes, good work always follows.  He will be missed.”

It’s not such a stretch for Ricque to head into content creation as the creative has also moonlighted as a screenwriter over the years and won Best Picture back in 2005 at the roving 48 Hour Film Project. On the ad side, meanwhile, prior to Moxie, Ricque spent well over four years at Atlanta-based Fitzgerald+CO, where he last served as co-chief creative officer. During his career, Ricque has also served as a senior copywriter at BBDO and an ACD at what is now 22squared.

Details are still hazy on this one, but word from sources in the know is that Sarah Montague, who’s spent the last two years serving as SVP, marketing at Digitas, is assuming the role of managing director at Organic San Francisco. The latter, Omnicom-owned agency is keeping schtum on the matter for now, but Montague’s impending arrival ends a two-month search for Organic SF, which has been without an MD/GM since Alle Aufderhaar decided to go client-side.

As for Montague, during her two years at Digitas, first in Chicago, then in San Francisco, the exec headed up marketing efforts for the agency’s Kraft and Kaiser Permanente accounts. Prior to Digitas, she spent 15 months as SVP/group management director at Draftfcb on CRM and multi-channel efforts for Volkswagen. We’ll fill in the details when we get them.

It took six months and change, but BBH has finally selected a new CEO for North America in Patrick Lafferty, who joins said agency after spending two-and-a-half years at McCann and the last 18 months as its North American COO. Lafferty replaces Greg Andersen, who was one of those affected by BBH’s major “restructuring” last fall. Lafferty, who will officially assume his CEO title at BBH this summer and based out of its New York office, rounds out a leadership team that includes CCO John Patroulis, CSO Sarah Watson and chairman, Emma Cookson.

Lafferty’s soon-to-be boss, BBH Group CEO Gwyn Jones, says in a statement, “Patrick has a really calm authority and such a rich body of experience. He has seen and done a lot both within and beyond our industry – embracing client side, media ownership and the military. We have great strategic and creative strength in the business, and I think Pat will bring outstanding leadership to that offering. On top of all that – I think he is just a great person.”

As you’d expect, Lafferty, who was, yes, a former platoon leader/company commander in the U.S. Army, will be tasked with running both BBH New York, which of course handles Axe and now Playstation, and L.A., which services clients including Red Bull. During his career, the exec has also worked on the account side at Leo Burnett and as CMO at Travel Channel.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard from New York-based shop People Ideas & Culture, which was launched by former Lowe Worldwide chief strategy officer Domenico Vitale in early 2009. Well, after getting a couple of tips over the weekend that the shop has brought on a new president, we received confirmation from the man himself this morning that PI&C did (rather quietly) hire David Fausel to assume said position. Fausel (pictured) and Vitale’s relationship goes back nearly a decade when the pair worked together at what was then Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, with the former serving as group account director and the latter, managing partner/head of strategy.

From what we’ve been told, Vitale’s now been focusing on branching out PI&C into other businesses and expanding into Europe. So, with Fausel coming on board, he now has someone to manage the agency’s New York hub, which currently counts 40 employees and houses a content company complete with photo studio and edit suite. PI&C’s client roster at the moment includes Mohegan Sun, Match.com and Hilton luxury hotels (specifically digital/social media content).

After seeing the reports ast week that Paul Renner was assuming the position of executive creative director on BMW at KBS+, one had to wonder what the status was with DJ Pierce, who rejoined said agency two years ago to take on the same role. Well, it does appear that Renner has succeeded Pierce more or less as sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that the latter has indeed turned in his resignation. From what sources in the know tell us, Pierce will part ways with KBS+ on June 1 and spies add that he’ll then turn his attention to his own projects, whatever they may be.

Pierce rejoined KBS+ after spending four years at CP+B, where he eventually moved up to creative director and was involved on projects including Best Buy’s Titanium Grand Prix-winning”Twelpforce” as well as with other accounts including AmEx small business along the way.

This is the true story about how one agency locked three creative types (a copywriter, art director and creative technologist) in a room for 24 hours and challenged them to, you guessed it, “get creative.” The end result was a viral hit of sorts from a few weeks ago called “Couchella,” which debuted just in time to coincide wit the annual weekend-long music extravaganza in California. As we previously mentioned, the trio who were put to the test were Julie Matheny, Scott Blew, and Ivan Cash, whose experiment is captured in the clip above. The “Couchella” project, essentially an internet music festival, actually marks 72andSunny’s involvement with Portfolio Night 11, specifically the Los Angeles installment. Whether it worked or not is up to the audience that took part, but hey, at least “Couchella” provided a free alternative to the now-bloated event that inspired it.

And now, a bit of news news. The baton has officially been passed from one Martin Agency exec to another as the Richmond, VA operation’s chairman John B. Adams Jr. is taking over for longtime friend and colleague, Martin president Mike Hughes, as head of the VCU Brandcenter’s Board of Directors, which includes other notable names such as David Droga and Bob Greenberg Hughes, who you’re probably aware is battling cancer at the moment, will step down from his VCU leadership position, one he’s held for two decades, and into the role of chairman emeritus with the Brandcenter’s Advisory Board.

In a statement, the outgoing VCU board head says, ““I’m especially proud of my part in helping to bring [Brandcenter director] Helayne [Spivak] and John to these positions. I can’t imagine two better people to lead the changes and advances ahead. The students, faculty and the industry should all feel very good about this. My 34-year partnership with John and my 20-year relationship with the Brandcenter have been two of the highlights of my career. I envy their opportunity to help define the future of this business and the future of advertising and branding education.”

After three years at Digitas, where she last served as VP/group creative director on the agency’s American Express account and helped win new biz including the likes of Mondelez, Kate Daggett has left to assume the ECD title at Tenthwave, a digital agency that houses offices from NYC to Dallas to San Francisco.

According to one seemingly despondent tipster, “She was at Digitas for three years and was the heart and soul of the agency. She brought life, positivity and vibrancy to an otherwise highly competitive and depressing office. There were actual tears from both clients and the team when she left.” Don’t know if we’ll garner the same kind of emotion if and when we do the same thing, but during her career, Daggett has also worked as a creative director at the likes of TBWA\Chiat\Day and Agency.com. As for Tenthwave, the agency’s client roster includes heavy-hitters such as Google, Facebook, eBay, Duncan Hines and Skype.

Lord, forgiveth as we’ve receiveth this news from the newswire and not a scoop, but yes, as you’ve probably seen in other realms, Tim Maleeny has been appointed as chief strategy officer for Havas Worldwide’s flagship New York office. You might remember back in the day, when hires, etc. were in bullet point posts on this here site, but yes, Maleeny joins from Ogilvy, where he spent nearly four years as a senior partner/head of account planning.

We’ll spare you the hellishness of the usual hyperbolic quotes and just tell you that Maleeny will work alongside Havas Worldwide Chicago CSO James Lou, who has been with said agency for 18 months (dating back to when it was still Euro RSCG) and has served on the strategy side at the likes of DDB and McCann during his career. As for Maleeny, the newest Havas exec will now lead strategy for clients including Dos Equis, New York Life, Charles Schwab, Merck, and IBM.