Venables Bell & Partners strengthens

This week, independent San Francisco advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners announced it has hired Michael Davidson (pictured) as head of strategy. Davidson will oversee the agency’s department, including account planning and communications strategy, and will report into Lucy Farey-Jones, partner, executive strategy director.

Joining Davidson in VB&P’s strategy department, the agency has also hired group strategy director Leander Chapman. Chapman comes to VB&P after running his own boutique strategy consultancy Crosscut Advisory Partners, where he created a strategic business methodology correlating business and consumer culture. Prior to that, he was a strategy director for Translation and has led planning for Grey, M&C Saatchi, Saatchi & Saatchi and BBDO, after starting his career at BBH.