Execs & Accounts for Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bank of America awarded its online and traditional ad business to Starcom USA, a Publicis agency. The account will be serviced by Starcom’s Chicago office with some help from Boston. The selection follows a three-month review.

R/GA created a new site for Sunglass Hut. The destination offers 24 designer brands and a “Find Your Style” module.

Sports-based social networking platform Loop’d signed a marketing deal with H2O Audio, a seller of underwater headphones and MP3 players. Amateur and pro water sports athletes can affiliate themselves with the brand and interact at H2Orider.com .

Samsung tapped Merkle for e-mail marketing. Merkle will support multiple divisions for the client, including Samsung Electronics America, Samsung Electronics Canada, and Samsung Telecommunications America.

Omnicom-owned Critical Mass promoted five to VP/managing director. They are: Mark Szabo, Taro Ramberg, Karolina Vieser, Kamal Syan, and Carolyn Robertson.

Behavior Design built a site to promote HBO’s seven-part miniseries on John Adams. The destination offers video interviews with lead actor Paul Giamatti; director Tom Hooper; and David McCullough, who authored the book the series is based on.

DriverTV has recruited a chief operating officer from NBC Universal, which recently made an investment in the firm. Adam Wiener was SVP of NBCU’s iVillage Media, where he led strategic partnership negotiations.

PointRoll hired Max Mead, Sanjiv Karani, and Dea Lawrence in senior roles. Mead was named VP of business development and strategy. Karani is VP of global product management and innovation, and Lawrence will lead West Coast sales as regional VP.

Digital agency Center Line hired Jared Sabater as director of new business strategy. He previously worked in Asia developing materials for K-Swiss and Nike.

Vertical ad network NetShelter Technology Media hired Bret Hennington as regional sales director in the Bay Area. He joins from FeedBurner, where he was director of Western region sales.

Burst Media hired Kelsey Scott to its San Francisco area sales force for Burst Media. She joins from TheStreet.com, where she focused on the San Francisco and Seattle regions. Additionally, Ted Seely joined the ad network’s New York City office.