Red Havas Sydney announces three senior hires

Red Havas has announced three senior appointments as new business continues to build a period of significant growth for the agency. 

Joining the Sydney team is Kelly Lane in the role of group account director, Sally Heydon as senior account director and Mauricio Ruiz in the newly created role of senior publicist.

Alex Bryant, Red Havas executive director – Sydney PR, said: "We are delighted to welcome this talented trio to the Red Havas team

"Their breadth of client experience is well suited to the evolving needs of our business and clients looking for agencies with deep expertise, and the ability to flex across sectors and services to help them achieve and exceed business objectives.

"With our current and new client mix we have strong vertical experience across travel, food and beverage, retail, luxury and lifestyle, technology, and government – with that experience bolstered even further with Kelly, Sally, and Mauricio on board," she added.

Lane brings over a decade of experience to the company as a brand storyteller and client partner across retail, technology, travel, finance, property, and healthcare.

She joins Red Havas from her role as external communications manager at NBN. Prior to that, Kelly worked with global communications agency Weber Shandwick, where she was most recently vice president and client relationship lead.

Lane has managed programs spanning consumer, corporate and sustainability communications, content, social media, and events, and worked with some of the world’s biggest brands including ALDI, Facebook, IBM, Garmin, and Honeywell.

Senior account director Heydon is a consumer brand specialist who has worked extensively with brands from start-ups to FMCGs, devising and implementing attention-grabbing, multi-channel campaigns, overseeing large scale events, and setting the news agenda of the day in busy press offices for her clients’ benefit. 

She has honed her expertise for over a decade in roles as senior account director for Finchco Agency and Adhesive in Sydney, and in account-focused roles in London, with both ENGINE Mischief and Palm PR.

Meanwhile Ruiz is a specialist in the luxury fashion, lifestyle, beverage, and hospitality industries who has applied his talents to drive outcomes for brands including ghd, Versace, Dolce &Gabbana, The Met Gala, Diageo, and ACCOR Group. He brings more than six years international experience managing PR, communications, and influencer marketing initiatives to the agency.

He joins from Sydney-based senior publicist and communications roles at TMC PR and EVH. Prior to that, he worked as a communications consultant and event manager with KCD in New York and Mexico.

Bryant added: "With these three new appointments and recent promotions of Kirsty McGorty to business director and Ourhai Turkhan to group account director we have a strong senior bench to support our clients in 2022 to deliver on their strategic integrated communications programs.

"We have some of the smartest and most creative minds in the business but equally important is their desire to collaborate and continue to build on the wonderful people-first based culture at Red."

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Top image: Mauricio Ruiz, Alex Bryant, Sally Heydon and Kelly Lane