Musical Chairs: Jon Stubley departs Pandora; New GM for Nova Adelaide; Sweat It Out unveils US team; Tanaya to set up The A&R Department in US

Jon Stubley departs Pandora

Pandora ANZ’s Commercial Director Jon Stubley has left after two years to concentrate on his family and his family business interests. He was previously Group Direct Sales Manager for Macquarie Radio and General Sales Manager of Australian Radio Network. The position is being advertised.

Pandora has 3 million registered Australian users. In the US, Pandora lost its senior lawyer and VP of Business Affairs Chris Harrison and opened a new office in Minneapolis to firm its local ad sales presence.

New GM for Nova Entertainment Adelaide

Nova Entertainment appointed Neil O’Reilly as General Manager for Nova 919 and FIVEaa in Adelaide. He has been acting in that role since April in addition to his duties as Financial Controller.

96FM’s Ian Blackley was not the only radio veteran in the news yesterday. A recent arrival at Triple M Sydney, Brad Hulme, resigned as executive producer of The Grill Team after just a few weeks in the role. He told content director Jamie Angel of his decision and the move took effect immediately.

Hulme arrived in Sydney from Adelaide where he had been content director at Fiveaa. Hulme is an experienced Triple M veteran who earlier in his career looked after The Cage for the network.

The Grill Team has lost a number of radio specialists this year and it is still only August! Earlier departures this year were Matthew “Father” O’Reilly to Triple M Adelaide, and Brenden Wood to Seven News Sydney.

Sweat It Out unveils US team

Sydney-based label, events and publishing company Sweat It Out (its acts include RÜFÜS, Porches, What So Not and Yolanda Be Cool) announced the US team, which operates its new Los Angeles office. The two A&Rs are electronic artist and producer Sinden (pictured)and DJ Trevor Moffit aka Bones. US promotion is by Matt Black while Jo Fisher will cover TV and commercial radio.

Breakfast change at Star 104.5

There are changes at Star 104.5’s breakfast team. After six years, Mandy Coolen will take Mondays and Fridays off to devote to her family. Masterchef 2009 winner Julie Goodwin will step in on those days with Craig, while Nova’s Dave “Rabbit” Rabbets comes in as anchor.

Jeffrey Remedios heads Universal Music Canada

Jeffrey Remedios is the new President and CEO of Universal Music Canada from September 21. He was a co-founder of Toronto-based indie label and management Arts & Crafts (Broken Social Scene, Faust, Sally Seltmann), set up the live music and arts festival Field Trip in Toronto and is Chairman of the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR). He replaces Randy Lennox, who accepted the role of President of Entertainment Production and Broadcasting at Bell Media, Canada’s largest television, radio and digital media company.

Matt Tanaya to set up The A&R Department in US

Matt Tanaya is leaving the Sydney headquarters of The A&R Department to set up its New York office.

Three changes at ABC Radio

Steve McClelland is new Content Director of ABC666 Canberra after his position of Regional Content Director Queensland was made redundant.
One time triple j executive Cath Dwyer becomes Manager of 702 ABC Sydney from late September. She was Project Director for ABC Open, its online project which publishes listener content for regional stations, which she joined in 2009.

Warwick Tiernan is Manager of 774 ABC Melbourne after serving as Head of Marketing & Communications for the last six years. He joined the ABC in 2003 from the Melbourne International Arts Festival where he was Marketing & Development Manager.

Ryno moving to PNG

Ryan ‘Ryno’ Khay is leaving his position as Content Director of four years for EON Broadcasting on the Sunshine Coast. He is moving to Port Moresby to become Operations Manager & Program Director for CHM Supersound ‘scommercial radio station RAIT 99.5. He lived in Papua New Guinea for some years during his younger days. Khay says he plans to spend time also at CHM’s huge recording studio to follow up his other life as musician and songwriter.

Marissa Bohm leaves CRA

Marissa Bohm joins ARN as Planning & Insights Strategist, a job she held at Commercial Radio Australia.

White Night Melbourne extends Walsh’s contract

The two-day White Night Melbourne festival extended Andrew Walsh AM’s as Artistic Director for the event in 2016. He has programmed it since its inception in 2013, and CEO Brendan McClements says Walsh has been “fundamental” to its success of 1.3 million attendees in its first three years.

Facebook ANZ promotes Scheeler to top job

Facebook promoted Head of Retail and Automotive, Stephen Scheeler, to Managing Director of ANZ operations. He reports to Dan Neary, VP Asia Pacific. He succeeds Will Easton who was upped to Head of Emerging Markets for Asia Pacific at the end of July.

Samsung loses another exec

Samsung Australia has lost a third executive this year, this time Brad Wright who headed its consumer electronics and AV division.

Sperling joins ASCAP

One time media, entertainment and digital investment banker Mark Sperling will explore new alliances and partnerships for ASCAP as its new SVP of Strategy and Business Development.

PTC loses two

Perth Theatre Company Artistic Director Melissa Cantwell has left after seven years in the role, and Executive Producer Georgia Malone after 20 months. The rest of PTC’s 2015 season was cancelled by the board after its planned big-budget final production Of Mice and Men missed hitting sponsorship targets.

New brand head for Vodafone

Natasa Zunic took over as GM of Brand and Communications at Vodafone after Nilanjan Sarkar stepped in to the newly created role of GM of segmentation.

Matthew Wray moves back to WA

After a stint doing breakfast at Resonate Broadcasting’s West FM Longreach in Queensland, Matthew Wray is back in WA. He was previously at Spirit 1260 Karratha and now does afternoons at Redwave Media’s Spirit 98.1 in Geraldton.

New ED for Festival of Chamber Music

Justin Ankus, most recently Manager of the Open Academy at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, started this week as Executive Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.

Travis Plane to drive InMobi’s ANZ expansion

As mobile advertising platform InMobi expands through ANZ, it appointed senior gaming executive Travis Plane Head of Business Development to drive partnerships with its key partners, including publishers, platforms and internet companies in the ANZ region. InMobi predicts major growth in ANZ. It currently delivers 8.7 billion ad impressions per quarter to mobile websites and apps across ANZ where mobile data traffic grows at over 40% per year.

Plane’s track record includes senior executive positions at Quickflix, communications agency OMD and Sony Computer Entertainment. But InMobi’s Regional Director and GM Jon White said his background in gaming (including indie games label Surprise Attack and THQ) was what appealed to the firm. “His gaming background shows he works well in a rapidly developing industry, where devices and behaviours are constantly evolving. It has parallels with the mobile advertising space.”