Restructure at Marketforce sees changes to their Client Service personnel

Marketforce has experienced a raft of account service changes over the past two months with senior appointments and several senior departures.

Former Head of Account Service Sarah Sawdon has joined the West Australian Football Commission as Senior Marketing Manager after four years at the agency – including just over two years in the Head of Account Service role.

The agency’s Head of Strategy Anne Hallam has also departed and will also take up a senior client marketing role.

In addition Dixie Marshall has changed roles swapping the agency Managing Director position to the newly created position of Chief Growth Officer. In this capacity Marshall will manage key agency accounts and new business.

These changes have seen the promotion of Craig Sadler to Marketforce General Manager and the transfer of Jos Davies to Client Director/Agency Producer and the transfer from Flare of Steph Clancy to Marketforce in the role of Senior Client Manager.

The agency has also made several new appointments. James Leonhardt has joined as Client/Strategy Director, Beth Christie as Client Director and Jayta Preller as Account Executive.

Sadler moves into the GM role and takes over leadership of the Client Service team. Sadler is a highly experienced marketing professional and has been with Marketforce for almost 20 years in various roles.

Leonhardt has over 20 years industry experience including senior marketing roles with iconic West Australian brands including Bankwest, HBF Health and The University of Western Australia. Over the course of his career, he has led a wide range of strategic projects including quantitative and qualitative research, market segmentation, market prioritisation, new product development, pricing strategy, brand positioning and campaign strategy.

Christie has worked both agency and client side in senior marketing roles. Prior to joining Marketforce Christie was a consultant for Western Australian Electoral Commission leading the roll out of communications for the 2021 State Election and a consultant for Department of Premier and Cabinet managing Covid-19 Communications. She has previously worked at McCann’s Melbourne as a Strategist working on University of Melbourne, Coca-Cola, LÓreal, Bakers Delight and WorkSafe Victoria.

Preller has over 9 years’ experience in customer service in the retail and hospitality industries. In this time, she has worked across multiple brands, including Accent Group. During university her Psychology degree and Marketing Degree, and her passion and eagerness to learn about people, motivated her to move overseas to North America for a year. Working for a top hotel in Canada, she gained skills and insights into working with different cultures.

Sadler said of his new role and team: “I am delighted to take on the leadership of Marketforce’s Client Service team. The individuals in the team are exceptional people with a breadth of experiences that span client and agency roles. Although many are new, they have had an immediate impact on our clients. This is a busy time for the agency with new clients being onboarded and some major projects underway.”

Pictured left to right: Berth Christie, Craig Sadler, James Leonhardt, Jos Davies and Steph Clancy.