The Figer and Kentaro agencies have appointed Jose de Lorenzo Messina as managing director of their Brazilian joint venture, Kentaro Figer.
Messina has broad experience of the media and sports markets in Latin America and Brazil having worked in senior roles for telecommunications companies Telefonica and Telecom Italia, along with the Koch Tavares agency.
He has subsequently run his own agency, Unideias, with his new role at Kentaro Figer being based in Sao Paulo.
Philipp Grothe, chief executive of the Kentaro Group, said: "We felt it essential that our joint venture in Brazil was headed by an experienced and well-connected Brazilian and in Jose we feel we have found exactly the right man. We intend to grow our business in Brazil based on our core business competencies in event creation, club consultancy, player trading and of course media rights sales.”