Havas WW London Hires Justin Vir

Havas Worldwide London has appointed Proximity’s Justin Vir as head of digital.

Vir, who has been creative services and operations director at Proximity for the past four years, will lead Havas Worldwide London’s digital capability and operations across all the agency’s projects and clients.

In this newly created senior role, he reports into the Havas Worldwide London chief executive Russ Lidstone.

At Proximity, Vir was a senior board member overseeing budgets, outsourcing, managing digital suppliers as well as managing the creative services department, process, workflow and talent management. During his time there, he was behind the integration of the agency’s on and offline processes.

Prior to Proximity, Vir was head of production at WPP agency GT between 2007and 2009. His role included developing and managing internal processes and overseeing delivery for clients such as Audi, Aviva, BBC and Microsoft.

Before that, he worked at Agency Republic as project director, overseeing project delivery across clients including Mercedes, Playstation and Nokia.  His past roles also include a stint at WPP agency Digit as senior producer.

Russ Lidstone said: “Justin is a proven force in digital operations. His arrival will strengthen our digital and integrated capabilities and build on our momentum in digital over recent years.”

Justin Vir said: “I'm very excited to be joining Russ and the team at Havas Worldwide. As well as working with some fantastic clients, there's a great opportunity for me to build on the strong digital capabilities they have and explore the creative opportunities where advertising, PR, social and digital meet.”

The move is part of a series of hirings and internal promotions at Havas Worldwide London, and follows the promotion of Anthony Edwards as strategy director, and the hiring of Leila Bartlam as head of film and Lisa Bowcott as planning director.