Following its biggest year of growth in more than a decade, McCann Melbourne has promoted executive director Anita Deutsch-Burley to general manager.

Deutsch-Burley joined the agency in July last year at a time of significant growth for McCann Melbourne, with the addition of clients including AGL Energy, Australian Unity, & The University of Melbourne. Since July the agency has added over $50 million in media billings to its growing creative offering.

As part of her new role, Deutsch-Burley will continue to drive the agency’s integrated creative, media, data and innovation offering, lead McCann Melbourne’s account management team, and work with senior clients across the business.

McCann Melbourne managing director Adrian Mills said, “Anita made an immediate and impressive impact to the business when she joined us mid-last year. Her promotion to the role of General Manager of the Melbourne business reflects her undeniable talent, work ethic and contribution to the management and growth of McCann in Melbourne.

“As the agency grows its integrated offering, expanding media and data capabilities, people like Anita become increasingly important and the more impact she has in our business, the better it gets.”

Deutsch-Burley added, “I am so excited to take on this role and help lead a talented and hard-working team to achieve even better results for our clients in the year ahead. With a commitment to continue to build our services and offering, McCann Melbourne is on track for another hugely successful 12 months.”

McCann Melbourne has also welcomed Richard Hayes, previously a senior account director at CHE Proximity, to the role of group account director. Prior to CHE Proximity, Hayes was general manager of Lifelounge.

McCann is currently the top-ranked Australian agency in the WARC Top 100 and recently took home two Cannes Lions for its Infrequent Flyers campaign for Tigerair.