By Kristin Wilcha

NEW YORK --

Celia Williams has returned to the ad agency arena, joining Arnold Worldwide, New York, as director of broadcast production. She comes over from music house Endless Noise, Los Angeles, where she served as executive producer. Prior to that, Williams served as director of broadcast production at DDB Worldwide, New York.

Williams succeeds Debbie Dunlap and Lisa Young, who served as co-heads of production; Dunlap has left the agency, while Young remains as an executive producer, overseeing entertainment and talent. In joining Arnold, Williams is reunited with John Staffen, executive creative director of the shop. The pair worked together at DDB, where Staffen served as a co-executive creative director. He left the agency in late ’03, and joined Arnold last year.

“When this position was offered here, I didn’t hesitate,” noted Williams. “There’s just something about the agency–you walk in the door and you feel supported and welcomed, and the company is extremely staff conscious and I think the creative is fantastic.”

Williams, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, began her career in advertising on the production company side, working as a line producer at Mark Berndt Productions, Chicago. She then moved on to Creative Fields–the in-house agency for department store chain Marshall Fields–and later worked as a freelance producer at DDB Chicago, before joining on staff there. She later transferred to DDB New York, becoming head of production in 2001, and joining Endless Noise in ’03.

She hopes to impart some of the knowledge and experience she gained on the music side of the business to her staff. “Part of my job as a head of production is to help, to a certain extent guide and educate the people who work with me,” said Williams. “… As a producer you have to know so many different things but at certain points in time, not necessarily the intimate details of it. Working at Endless Noise offered me several things, first of all to really understand the music business better.”

    Williams will oversee a department comprised of 14 staffers, including executive producers, producers, assistants, the business management team and traffic. Williams, who joined the shop in early January, related that several clients, including the Bermuda Department of Tourism, GlaxoSmithKline, and Parker Brothers, all have new work breaking in the coming months.

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