People on the Move: James O'Reilly Is Sonic's New CMO
Sonic has named James O'Reilly senior VP-chief marketing officer. Most recently Mr. O'Reilly served as chief concept officer at Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, parent company of Einstein Bros. Bagels. During his tenure there he oversaw marketing, research & development, as well as information technology. Prior to his stint at Einstein, he spent 13 years with Yum Brands , working in multiple roles, including a post as CMO of KFC, along with international posts with KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Yum Restaurants International, and senior VP-U.S. marketing of Yum Brands. Mr. O'Reilly replaces Danielle Vona, who left the company in January.
Gilt Group has hired Elizabeth Francis as CMO. Ms. Francis had held the same position at Intelligent Beauty, a company that develops online health and beauty businesses. She was also president of JustFabulous, a similar venture. Ms. Francis replaces Alexis Maybank, a founder of Gilt who had been acting as CMO for six months, since the departure of David Zucker in July.
"When Keith joined Harley-Davidson as CEO in 2009, the board believed it essential for him to be able to devote his full energy to strategies to move the business forward, without the distraction of Board leadership responsibilities," Allen said.
Howard Opinsky has joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies as exec VP and head of the Washington, DC office, effective March 1. He was most recently managing director-global corporate communications at JPMorgan Chase. Prior to joining JPMorgan,
