Emap poaches Express group head and IPC ad award winner

Emap Advertising has hired Richard Hayes from Express Newspapers to be the new commercial director of Heat, and poached IPC Southbank's salesperson of the year Liz Vasquez-Liston.

Hayes is the second group head the newspaper group has lost inside a week, following the departure of Steve Fletcher to Cabal Communications to take up the position of ad director.

The Express is expected to promote from within to replace Hayes and Fletcher, who were part of the agency teams selling the Daily and Sunday Express. Fletcher had worked for the papers for more than eight years.

Hayes joined Heat on 5 March, replacing Rachel Geary who is on maternity leave expecting twins. Head of Emap's women's group Suzanne Grover said it was normal company policy to replace staff who are on maternity leave. Geary has been promised an equivalent position when she returns.

Apart from Heat, Geary was also heading ad sales on new men's title Project Floyd but that remit has not been passed to Hayes. It is thought Project Floyd has been put on hold until Geary returns.

Hayes' remit is to capitalise on Heat's huge ABC increase by enticing more cosmetics, toiletries and fmcg brands.

Commenting on Hayes' appointment, Grover said: 'Given Heat's weekly frequency, I'm really excited about hiring somebody with a newspaper background. Richard has great experience across the market and his agency references were so impressive it made you wonder if he'd paid for them!'

Liz Vasquez-Liston joins from IPC Southbank to be advertisement manager on Red and Elle, and Lisa Frost has been promoted from account manager to ad manager on New Woman and Top Sante. Both are new positions.

Vasquez-Liston is currently business manager on Living etc and, just two weeks ago, won IPC Southbank's salesperson of the year award.

Frost will report to advertisement director Lisa Herron and Vasquez-Liston will report to Jacqui Greaves, ad director of Red and Elle.

This article was first published on Media Business