The Irvine Company has placed a longtime marketing executive in charge of a new, integrated marketing and communications group, which it is staffing in part with outside recruits.
William Mitchell, who has been a senior vice president in Richard Sim’s Investment Properties Group, is taking over the new unit on April 1. Mitchell will report directly to company owner Donald Bren. The only other senior VP who reports directly to Bren is urban planner Rob Elliott.
Vice presidents who will now report to Mitchell are Paul Kranhold, who moves from corporate communications to corporate marketing; Rich Elbaum, a PR specialist hired away from UCI to take over communications, until now part of executive Gary Hunt’s realm; Kathleen Freed, who leaves as county CEO Jan Mittermeier’s PR chief to head up community communications; and Steve Schumacher, who moves over from his MIS slot (part of executive VP-CFO Michael McKee’s turf) to head technology development, including websites.
Sim gets a new marketing chief, VP Murray Crow, who arrives from Paine & Associates; Crow will have a dotted-line report to Mitchell.
