Havas Worldwide Australia Group has promoted James Wright to a newly created role, group managing director, meaning he now has responsibility for four of the Havas owned agencies in Australia, including continued responsibility for Red Agency.

As part of the move, Aaron Crowther, formerly of Spectrum Group, has joined as general manager of Red Agency.

Wright joined Havas in May 2011 as managing director of Red Agency Australia, since then it has seen huge commercial and creative success, becoming one of Australia’s most awarded PR agencies. In 2014 he was named PR Leader of the Year at the CommCon Awards. At the start of 2014 he took on added duties as managing director of Havas People Australia (the Havas employer branding agency), and advertising agency, Havas Worldwide Melbourne. His new role will see him add Arnold Furnace to his remit. Alex Carr remains as managing director of Havas Worldwide Sydney.

Anthony Gregorio, Havas Worldwide CEO, said: “James is a proven agency leader who has continually delivered above and beyond with his agencies. He has been a key player in the Group’s success and what he has done with Red Agency in such a short time has been incredible. We are already seeing great progress at Havas People and in Melbourne and by adding Arnold Furnace to his portfolio we have a great opportunity to further develop an agency with a proud history.”

Crowther will report to Wright and joins Red Agency from his role at Max Australia, Spectrum Communications and Magnetic Content (the Public Relations divisions of IPMG Digital), where he was group business director leading new business, strategy, marketing and services.