Anthem expands brand development leadership team

Anthem, a creative agency that works with retailers on their private brands, said it expanded its North American brand development group with three key appointments. The company appointed Wendy Kufeldt as managing director for Anthem’s Toronto office, Linda Bracanovich as managing director for Anthem’s San Francisco office and Ron Vandenberg as executive creative director for Anthem’s San Francisco office.

"Our key objective for these organizational hires is to build on Anthem's positive momentum and marketplace success with continued commitment, strength and strategic leadership,” said Janice Jaworski, vice president, brand development, Americas.

As managing director of Anthem Toronto, Wendy Kufeldt will lead Anthem’s Canadian operations, delivering strategic brand development solutions for clients across North America. She brings to Anthem a depth of experience driving integrated consumer and shopper engagement strategies for top 100 global brands primarily in the packaged goods, retail and consumer electronics sectors. Kufeldt comes to Anthem from Acosta Mosaic Group and is the winner of the 2014 Acosta North American Chairman's Award for Innovation. She has also had client side experiences at Cadbury Chocolate and Russell Stover, the company said.

As managing director of Anthem San Francisco, Linda Bracanovich will be a facilitator for effective marketing, business development and team leadership. She brings a wealth of experience from her previous roles, working with and for leading brand consultancy and creative firms, including Omnicom’s Siegel & Gale and Wolff Olins, Dentsu-Aegis’ ATTIK, and IPG’s FCB. Her collaborative approach has led to trusted partnerships with some of the world’s largest global brands, Anthem said.

Ron Vandenberg has held executive creative director roles with some of the world’s leading brand and design consultancies, where he helped create some of the most recognized and iconic brands. This body of Fortune 100 work, created by Vandenberg and his teams, has been recognized by every major industry awards show, including an unprecedented three CLIO awards in a single year. Along the way, he co-founded and built three brand agencies: Futurebrand, Blue Mint (which was acquired by SGK in 2003 and was rebranded Anthem) and Merchant, Anthem stated.

“These recent brand development leadership appointments expand and solidify the team tasked with building business in North America to drive brand performance for our clients across consumer packaged goods, retail and healthcare sectors,” Jaworski said.

Anthem is part of the brand development group of SGK, which is a division of Pittsburgh-based Matthews International Corp.