Arnold Worldwide Bolsters Digital Offering by Bringing on Modernista! Digital Team

Former Modernista! President Matt Howell Named Managing Partner, Global Chief Digital Officer

Sebastian Gard Named SVP, Director of Social Media and Bob Goodman Named VP, Director of User Experience

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Mar 28, 2011, 05:05 ET

BOSTON, March 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arnold Worldwide announced today that it has further strengthened its digital capability with eight hires, all formerly of Modernista!, an agency known for its innovative digital work. Three of the hires fill newly created digital leadership positions, including Matt Howell, who joins as Managing Partner, Global Chief Digital Officer; Sebastian Gard, who joins as SVP, Director of Social Media; and Bob Goodman who joins as VP, Director of User Experience.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110328/NE72832 )

"We've focused a large amount of energy and investment in making Arnold a talent destination. In the past year, our new business wins, creative success and global expansion have attracted smart, skilled and ambitious people to the agency," said Andrew Benett, Global CEO of Arnold Worldwide and Global Chief Strategy Officer of Havas Worldwide. "These latest hires, including Matt, Sebastian and Bob, are exactly the type of people we've been seeking to help us continue to elevate our digital offering. Over the past year, we've made significant gains in this area, resulting in great work for clients like Carnival, Progressive and Truth. With this new team in place, our ambition to create a best-in-class, fully integrated digital capability is being realized."

In addition to Howell, Gard and Goodman, Arnold has hired five former Modernista! digital specialists with expertise in social media, user experience and digital production. As Global Chief Digital Officer, Howell will lead Arnold's digital teams across the agency's global micro-network to ensure digital capabilities are integrated throughout each office.

"We're very excited to be a part of Arnold and to help build on this momentum," said Howell. "There's clearly a lot of ambition here and we intend to see that reflected in work across digital channels. Our immediate focus will be in building out the structure to support the creation of higher-end, more complex products, applications, experiences and content. There's a lot here to work with. It's going to be fun."

Over the past year, Arnold has made an aggressive push in digital, hiring over 60 people and bringing in top talent from respected agencies, including Graham Cousens, SVP, Director of Digital Production from Crispin Porter & Bogusky and three VP, Creative Directors, including Steve Caputo from R/GA, Jose Luis Martinez from Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Tom Morhous from AKQA. Arnold's digital team works in collaboration with creatives, business and brand strategists, planners, account management and other disciplines as needed to deliver the right creative and business solutions for each client.

About Matt Howell

Howell joins as Managing Partner, Global Chief Digital Officer. His career can be defined as a fusion between marketing and technology. Howell spent three years at Modernista!, where he ran the interactive group and successfully integrated digital practices into the core of the agency's offering. Modernista! named him President in 2010. Previously, Howell worked at R/GA and was responsible for award-winning work for Nike+, NikeiD and the Nike Online Store. He was also a part of the agency's expansion into Stockholm, Sweden. Throughout his career, Howell has worked with a diverse range of clients including AT&T, Cadillac, Prada and Sony. His work has taken top honors at Cannes, the Clios and the One Show. He is also on the Board of Directors at Boulder Digital Works at the University of Colorado. Howell starts immediately and he will report to Benett.

About Sebastian Gard

Effective immediately, Gard joins as SVP, Director of Social Media, similar to the position he held at Modernista! He is responsible for building social media strategies and concepts into client campaigns, as well as helping to build and manage the social media practice at the agency. Gard has a diverse background in consumer marketing, consumer product management and software engineering. He has worked with a long list of Fortune 500 brands, including Microsoft Windows, Zune, Bing and JC Penney. Prior to Modernista!, he was a Strategic Account Director at Context Optional, where he drove social media strategy. Prior to that, he was the Digital Marketing and Social Media Manager, Search Business, at Microsoft, where he was a founding member of the Search Business Unit. Gard also held positions at Onfolio, Inc., a consumer web startup that was later acquired by Microsoft, Scansoft (now Nuance, Inc.) and Xerox.

About Bob Goodman

Effective immediately, Goodman joins as VP, Director of User Experience. Goodman's user-experience expertise spans early stage ideation to final optimization. He has led design and usability projects for more than 20 consumer and web products, including the first online insurance site, the first online grocery store and the first global scientific R&D marketplace. Most recently, Goodman was User Experience Director at Modernista!, where he was responsible for building engaging experiences on social media products and platforms. Goodman has also worked as an independent UX consultant to startups and Fortune 500 companies, held the position of Associate Creative Director on Mullen's interactive team and served as a product designer at Microsoft Startup Labs. While at Microsoft, he was an integral contributor to building the Hotmail experience. Goodman has worked with notable clients, including Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Verizon and WebMD.

About Arnold Worldwide

Arnold is a global communications company and one of the top five most creatively awarded agencies of the past decade. We are proud to represent a diverse portfolio of clients, including Aetna, Alberto Culver, Amtrak, Carnival Cruise Lines, CVS/pharmacy, Dell, Fidelity Investments, The Hershey Company, Huntington Bank, Lee Jeans, McDonald's, Mederma, Mike's Hard Lemonade Co., New Balance, Ocean Spray, Panasonic, Progressive, Titleist, truth®, Tyson, Volvo and many other great brands. Arnold delivers services across all communication touch points – advertising, digital, promotions, direct, design, branded content – and is part of Havas Worldwide with offices in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Prague, Milan, Madrid, Moscow, Lisbon, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Shanghai.