TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles has hired Wayne Hempe as chief financial officer, joining from TBWA’s Nissan United, and Courtney Nelson as managing director, coming from Wieden+Kennedy Portland. The L.A. shop has also promoted Sheri Thorburn to chief talent officer.
With more than 100 new hires in 2021 alone, TBWAChiatDay LA has experienced a significant surge, fueled by organic growth, recent new business wins and the investment in key areas across the agency from a capabilities, talent and diversity perspective. Hempe, Nelson and Thorburn round out the agency’s executive leadership team, working alongside CEO Erin Riley, chief strategy officer Jen Costello and chief creative officer Renato Fernandez.
With a finance career spanning more than 23 years, Hempe spent 14 years within the TBWA collective, previously holding senior leadership positions at Nissan United, TBWAWorldwide, TBWASouth Africa and TBWANEBOKO in Amsterdam, a testament to the company’s commitment to talent mobility and advancement. Most recently, Hempe served as VP, finance at TBWA’s Nissan United North America. In his new role as CFO, Hempe will be integral in developing its business plans for growth and will be in charge of the agency’s overall financial performance and client and other stakeholder negotiations. Hempe will also be involved in agency culture and DEI initiatives.
Nelson comes to TBWAChiatDay LA having spent more than a decade at Wieden+Kennedy Portland, rising through the ranks to global group brand director, creating impactful campaigns for brands including Nike, Levi’s, Instagram, P&G, Trolli, Secret Deodorant, and TurboTax, among others. The move marks a return to Chiat, as she previously worked at TBWAChiatDay from 2005 to 2008. Throughout her 22-year career she has spent time at other leading agencies, including Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Deutsch. As managing director, Nelson will oversee operations, brand and business management and production to streamline the agency’s systems as it continues to be in growth mode.
Thorburn joined the ChiatDay LA in 2017 and has been integral in the development of training programs including “Disrupting Recruiting” to eliminate unconscious bias in the hiring process, established affinity groups, hiring key positions, and implemented performance management systems to nurture and retain talent. As part of the leadership team, Thorburn has been instrumental in implementing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the agency. Her leadership approach rooted in trust and transparency has continued to transform and shape the agency’s unique culture offering.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More