OMNICOM GP : Critical Mass Appoints Three Industry Veterans to Leadership Team

Critical Mass (www.criticalmass.com), an Omnicom digital marketing agency, announces three appointments to its management team to steward the agency's growth on key accounts. In New York, Cindy Nelson, a seasoned digital and financial industry expert, will join the executive team as Senior Vice President, Group Director, along with Aaron Rosenberg as Vice President, Program Planning, while Ray Villares has been named Vice President, Client Partner out of the agency's Chicago office.

Prior to joining Critical Mass, Cindy Nelson served as the VP/Group Director of Strategy & Analysis for Digitas in New York. She was focused on strategy and client relationships for clients like IBM, Samsung, TIAA-CREF and others. As the strategic team lead, Nelson was engaged in brand strategy, new business development, global campaign development, campaign measurement, CRM, site design/redesign, and marketing strategy including advising clients on organizational structure, process improvement and new media. She also led the Learning & Development program for the NY Strategy & Analytics practice at Digitas.

Her four years at Digitas marked Nelson's move on the agency side, after years within the financial services arena for Smith Barney, Kidder Peabody and Morgan Stanley. In her ten years at Morgan Stanley, she moved from an Associate in the Equity Division's Client Technology Group to the Executive Director of Interactive Marketing. There, she was primarily responsible for client portal strategy and integration of products, services, and content across equity and fixed income web offerings. Her financial background includes technology, marketing and customer experience leadership in a variety of products and segments and an extremely deep understanding of the industry and marketplace.

Aaron Rosenberg joins Critical Mass as VP, Program Planning and is dedicated to developing process and operational excellence across offices. With over 15 years of software development and project management experience in the digital realm, Rosenberg brings a practical focus to delivering results for clients. Prior to Critical Mass, he was Program Manager at Fry, Inc. where he led complex e-commerce initiatives and oversaw professional service operations for major retail clients such as Ann Taylor and Godiva. During his tenure, he sought to improve both design quality and delivery by creating the environment for success?mentoring project teams, developing online strategy with clients, and implementing collaboration-driven work processes. Aaron has managed numerous online campaigns, site redesign projects, loyalty programs, technical integrations, intranets and full-scale e-commerce implementations for a wide array of Fortune 500 companies including VF/Nautica, and Kraft.

Ray Villares will serve as Vice President, Client Partner in the Critical Mass Chicago office. Prior to joining the agency, Villares leveraged his passion for interactive design and innovation to lead the charge in Interactive and Mobile offering development at Symmetri Marketing Group and Acquity Group. He fostered successful relationships with dozens of clients including AT&T, Ben & Jerry's, Cars.com, Gordon Food Service, McDonald's, Motorola, Northern Trust, Proctor & Gamble, Sears, Schawk, True Value, Underwriters Laboratories and Yamaha. In addition, Villares is an Organizing Director for the Chicago Chapter of Mobile Monday (http://www.momochicago.org/), a community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influencers fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, mobile best practices and trends.

"We are thrilled to bring these three individuals on board to bolster our management team," said Dianne Wilkins, Chief Executive Officer, Critical Mass. "Cindy's financial services depth and strategic leadership will enhance our organization and add tremendous value to our clients, while Aaron will be charged with driving operational efficiency as we continue to expand the business. In addition, Ray has a strong track record of embracing new technologies and driving growth throughout his career, and that will prove to be an invaluable asset to the clients he serves," Wilkins added.

About Critical Mass

Critical Mass (www.criticalmass.com), an Omnicom digital marketing agency, helps the world's leading companies use digital media to create extraordinary experiences?experiences that bring together creative thinking, smart ideas and emerging technologies to drive our clients' businesses. Consistently recognized by Forrester Research as a leading interactive agency, Critical Mass operates globally from offices in Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Nashville, London, Amsterdam and Costa Rica. Critical Mass is a unit of Star Marketing Group (www.starmsgroup.com). For additional information, visit our website: www.criticalmass.com, our blog: http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com, www.facebook.com/criticalmass.agency or follow us on twitter: @criticalmass.

Celia Jones
Critical Mass
312.705.4169
celiaj@criticalmass.com
twitter: @celiajones

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