Wellcom Worldwide, an INNOCEAN company, has appointed David Bridges as its new group global president and CEO. Bridges undertakes the restructure and renewal of Wellcom Worldwide as it enters the next phase of expansion. He will oversee the growth and strategic direction of all the Wellcom brands, including digital ecommerce/content production agency thelab and high-end shoot and postproduction company Dippin’ Sauce.
Previously, Bridges served as president and CEO of thelab NYC, Wellcom’s largest U.S. business. Bridges’ promotion comes during a transformational period for Wellcom Worldwide as it expands into North America where it will open a new office in Brooklyn. Its new headquarters in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn will house the newly launched Wellcom U.S. business further expanding Wellcom’s global footprint. Both thelab and Dippin’ Sauce will also be located in the new 24,000 sq ft Dumbo facility.
“David will bring a wealth of experience and energy in his new role at Wellcom Worldwide,” stated William Lee, global CEO of INNOCEAN Worldwide. “He is a leader able to forge us forward as Wellcom grows globally, expanding business opportunities and bringing our offices together as a driving force.”
Bridges said that in his new role he will “continue to build and diversify our talent and service offerings so we can provide our clients with relevant, world class integrated content production services and solutions. Wellcom’s global network will enable us to produce complex content around the world with scale while delivering the speed, quality, and service our clients expect.”
Additional appointments
Other executive appointments include: Max Oshman promoted to CEO of thelab NYC; Valerie Anderson, new head of content for Wellcom Worldwide; Doug Guttenberg, promoted to managing director of the newly launched Wellcom USA; and Andrew Lumsden promoted to CEO of Wellcom Australia/Asia.
In 2008, Oshman joined thelab after FK Interactive, an award-winning interactive development firm he founded, was acquired. He served as chief digital officer at thelab and will continue providing digital strategy for client teams while expanding capabilities in UX, creative, technology and data/analytics across the company. With an emphasis on branded storefront development, performance-based, cross-channel campaign strategy and scalable content production workflows, thelab aims to partner with and support ambitious brands with ambitious vision for their industry and the world at large.
Anderson co-founded the creative editing company, Beast, which evolved to include a fully integrated creative network that attracted a diverse array of world-class talent through a partnership with Ascent. Following the acquisition of Ascent by Deluxe Entertainment, she became chief marketing officer of Deluxe Creative Services where she developed and executed comprehensive sales and marketing strategies across the entertainment and advertising sectors. Anderson then joined Publicis Groupe to innovate the North American studio offering where she led a team that won global GSK omnichannel production work. Now in her new role, Anderson will lead the strategic development of Wellcom’s integrated content offering by expanding its investment in technology, workflows and talent globally, allowing it to produce relevant, high quality content at scale.
Prior to his promotion to managing director of Wellcom USA, Guttenberg was head of production at thelab. He will leverage Wellcom’s technology and creative production solutions to service both Global and US based clients.
Since joining Wellcom in 2008, Lumsden has held roles as global COO, group financial controller, CFO and company secretary. Previously he was a sr. audit manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the U.K. and Australia. Lumsden in his new capacity will lead Wellcom’s offices in Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and work in partnership with Bridges to continue to build a world class global production agency.
