Bauer Media has turned in-house to replace commercial director Paul Gardiner – who in September moved to a similar role at Bauer Australia. The NZ arm has made permanent the acting commercial director role of Kaylene Hurley, who’s been filling in for Gardiner.

DDB Group communications agency Mango has appointed a new experiential director – Noeline van den Berg, who joins from Publicis Groupe South Africa, to lead Mango’s events team, delivering experiential campaigns for a range of clients including McDonald’s, Specsavers and Mini.

Freeview has appointed Jason Foden as chief executive officer after serving several months as acting general manager. Prior to taking up his role at Freeview, Foden was the general manager of OnDemand at TVNZ for over three years.

Location technology company Blis has established a permanent presence in NZ, appointing Don Saw as its Auckland-based technical sales manager. (Scroll up to read about the Blis release of its DSP on both sides of the Tasman.)

Auckland ad-music production house Smoke Music has welcomed new talent to their ranks, including Joe Faris (the man behind Ezra Vine’s hit tune and TV1 hero sting Celeste), Josh Edmonds (from Nelson alt-pop group Little Oceans), Parris Goebel producer Rory Noble, Berlin-based Simon Hughes and whizkid Will Henderson (who has been known to moonlight on keyboards for the likes of Janine and the Mixtape, Thomston and Theia).

Creative partner Rob Jack is leaving Special Group which he founded in 2007 with Tony Bradbourne and Heath Lowe.