Match Marketing Group Announces Two New Hires

North American consumer engagement agency Match Marketing Group announced the appointment of two senior creative hires as it continues to build a strong leadership team in the U.S. and Canada; Eric Moncaleano, executive creative director, North America; and Gary Westgate, VP, head of creative, Canada.

“We’re thrilled to have Eric and Gary join the Match team,” said Brian Cohen, CEO of Match Marketing Group. “While the last few months have been some of the most challenging our industry has ever seen, investing in the right talent has remained at the forefront of what makes Match a great place to work. To that end, finding the right Creative stewardship to complement our redefined strategic approach has been a top priority, and we couldn’t be more excited about how Eric and Gary fit in. Their respective talents are equally balanced with their diverse set of experiences and their empathic approach to leadership. They are already making a positive impact on both our agency’s culture and our clients’ brands.”

Moncaleano is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of integrated agency experience. In this new role, he will be responsible for overseeing creative for Match’s roster of clients across the U.S. and Canada, which include Ford, L’Oréal, PepsiCo, Progressive, Nestle, LG, Adidas, MARS, Diageo and Nespresso, to name a few. Reporting to Cohen, Moncaleano will be based in Match’s Boulder, CO office.

Prior to joining Match, Moncaleano spent the greater part of his career at Publicis North America in Dallas, where most recently he served as SVP, ECD. During his time at Publicis, he worked on an array of brands including Bridgestone Tire, Bridgestone Golf, Delta Dental, Nestlé Waters, BMW, TruGreen, Hot Pockets, Terminix, Chevrolet, Jim Beam, GlaxoSmithKline, PowerBar and CapitalOne, among others. Before that, he held roles at FCB Global and Leo Burnett. Throughout his career, Moncaleano has been recognised by many of the top awards shows.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be joining an agency like Match that is continuing to build momentum, even during these challenging times,” said Moncaleano. “I’m looking forward to immersing myself in this great culture, working with talented and passionate people who really want to make a difference and most of all, doing great work for our clients.”

As VP, head of creative in Canada, Westgate will be responsible for overseeing the creative department for Match’s Toronto-based operations and will report to Moncaleano. Most recently, Westgate led his own creative consultancy over the past year which included creative development for an English-speaking pharmaceutical company in South America. Prior to this, he was creative director at Anomaly in Toronto for three years, where he led creative direction on Bud Light and BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) and worked on other notable brands such as Nike, Hershey’s and UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). During this time, Westgate managed and guided all social, digital and mainstream marketing efforts for clients, while cultivating creative teams and nurturing their career development.

Before that, Westgate spent three years at JWT Toronto as VP creative director after developing and creating the winning pitch campaign for Air Canada. Prior to joining JWT, he was ECD at Innocean Worldwide and Taxi.

The new hires come on the heels of the agency’s latest senior level appointment of Anne Dean, as SVP/GM Marketing Solutions (Toronto) in early April.