Execs & Accounts for January 16, 2008

Gannett named Chris Saridakis senior vice president and chief digital officer. The former CEO of rich media company and Gannett subsidiary PointRoll, Saridakis will also become a member of the Gannett Management Committee. Jason Tafler, senior vice president, global business operations and strategy, succeeds Saridakis as CEO of PointRoll. Gannett also named Jack Williams president of Gannett Digital Ventures.

Glam Media named Wendy Mazzoni VP of ad operations. The women-focused media firm hired Mazzoni from Fox Interactive Media where she was VP of operations and led the advertising operations division and strategy for IGN, MySpace, Fox, and AmericanIdol.com among other properties.

Guidester named John Federman president and chief executive officer. Federman joined the paid search e-commerce network from eStara where he was CEO.

Proximic signed Yahoo Shopping and Shopping.com to its advertising network. The content-matching and contextual advertising firm will provide targeted ads from the companies to its publisher network.

EPrize promoted Alesya Opelt to vice president of marketing. Opelt was previously senior director of marketing for the interactive promotions firm.

Partners+simons hired Stepanie Rodgers as a senior director for its Contract Planning Department. The newly formed department will help clients assess marketing channels. Rodgers was formerly a senior vice president and digital marketing director at Hill Holliday.

Mars selected Unicast to promote Whiskas cat food in France. Formerly known as Viewpoint, Unicast created rich media ads and a Web site to share videos of cats.

Havas U.S.A. selected TNS Media Intelligence for competitive advertising intelligence. The holding company’s agencies, including MPG, Havas Media, Arnold and Euro RSCG will have access to TNS Media Intelligence’s database of competitive advertising information.

Acxiom Digital selected Message Systems for its e-mail delivery system. The digital marketing firm will use Message Systems’ Delivery Manager.

Aspen Marketing acquired Experiencia. The Chicago-based agency focuses on the Hispanic market, and changed its name to Aspen Latino. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Tumri named Calvin Liu president and CEO. The display marketing firm’s founder and former CEO Hari Menon will remain as chief strategy officer and board member. Lui most recently served as the COO of Connexus.

BrandinHand hired Eric Bader as president and managing director. Bader will manage the mobile marketing and media consultancy’s New York office.

Enterprising Women selected VisionPoint Marketing. The magazine for women business owners tasked the agency with developing its online strategy.