Wunderman Thompson Lands Three New National Strategy Hires

Wunderman Thompson Australia has announced the expansion of its national strategy department with three new hires across their national strategy departments.

The first two new hires will be East Coast based, with Jill Manester joins the Melbourne office as head
of strategy and Roma Singhal as strategy director Sydney, while the West Coast sees the elevation of Barry Walker to head of strategy at its Perth office.

An experienced strategic practitioner, Jill Manester (pictured, right) joins the creative agency from ANZ, where she
was Strategic Brand Advisor for the banks’ digital-first financial wellbeing offer, ANZ Plus.

Originally from the UK, Jill’s formative years were spent at Saatchi and Saatchi London, before joining
M&C Saatchi and making the move to Australia, where she led the strategy offer at TBWA Melbourne.
With an interdisciplinary background in brand strategy, human-centred design and innovation, recent
work includes helping ANZ define its organisation-wide CVP, advising Brown Brothers on how to turn
125 years young, instigating a new customer experience strategy for Dan Murphy’s and a modern
luxury positioning for Lexus.

Roma Singhal (pictured, centre left) joins as Strategy Director in Sydney having spent over 15 years as a brand and digital
creative strategist understanding human behaviour for both local and global brands.

Roma’s broad client experience includes Sony, Samsung, IBM, BlackBerry, Intel, Vodafone, Foxtel, Netflix, Pernod Ricard, Cadbury, Ferrero, Kraft Heinz, Sanitarium, A2 Milk, KFC, Coca-Cola, AirAsia, L’Oreal, Blackmores, Bunnings and more. Her work has been recognised at both a local and global level, including The EFFIE Gold for Cadbury.

Barry Walker (pictured, left) has been elevated to Head of Strategy of Wunderman Thompson Perth. A WPP Fellowship alumni, Barry began his journey as a strategist with independent Perth based agency, Meerkats – now Wunderman Thompson Perth. Working internally with companies across operations, c-suite and board level, his career focus has centred on helping organisations better define their reason for being, from the ground up.

His passion for unearthing true human motivation has taken him from Perth to London, New York and back again working with the likes of KPMG, Macy’s, Unilever, Campari and Kellogg’s along the way.

Recently appointed chief strategy officer, Melanie Wiese (pictured, centre right) says: “The vision for the strategy practice at Wunderman Thompson is for a really diverse set of skills united by a consistent, national methodology. We now offer not just campaign and brand strategy, but deep expertise in purpose and sustainability consultancy, employee and customer experience and service design.”

“Our job is to let these super smart and motivated people unleash their expertise on ambitious client problems and empower them to have an inspiring point of view.”

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