Savatar Inc., a recently formed subsidiary
of the WPP Group, added two senior marketing executives to its staff.
Lance D. Podell, who will manage the company’s recently established New York
City office, was named Savatar’s vice president for client
development/marketing. Savatar also said that John Macario will serve as vice
president for business technology solutions and will be based in the company’s
Boston headquarters.
Savatar is built on a business model that fuses four types of companies: an
interactive agency, management consultancy, software developer, and systems
integrator. Savatar is applying this model to its own clients as well as in
partnership with sister WPP clients.
Projects include developing a Java-based intranet and tele-service system for
AT&T, systems and applications engineering for the U.S. Air Force, designing a
business partner interaction architecture for IBM, and creating a promotional,
database-driven Web site for Aleve.
Podell will be responsible for new client development and the company’s
account, media, and creative teams from its New York office. Podell worked on
some of the earliest interactive marketing programs at Ogilvy & Mather
Direct’s
Interactive Marketing Group.
He joins Savatar from the Interactive Division of
U S WEST, where he was part of the management team for the company’s DiveIn
project, a Web-based local information service.
Macario will be managing Savatar’s business technology group that designs and
develops systems for interactive marketing, tele-services, and database
marketing efforts. He joins Savatar from Bronner, Slosberg, Humphrey, a
Boston-based direct marketing company, where he worked extensively with its
interactive subsidiary, the Strategic Interactive Group.
