Marie Jackson, managing director of M&C Saatchi Sydney for the last three years, is to become managing director of Solterbeck, Australia’s leading company in the rapidly-growing field of performance improvement.

Jackson has 20 years of agency senior management experience, as a director of Ogilvy & Mather, regional partner of Publicis Mojo, managing director of M&C Saatchi New Zealand and managing director of M&C Saatchi Sydney.

My years with M&C Saatchi have been a happy and successful time in my life, and I wish only the best for the agency. Now I’m taking a new direction, into an area of increasing importance to top companies. It’s a field of enormous potential in Australia and internationally, and Solterbeck is a leading-edge performer, said Jackson.

Based in Melbourne, Solterbeck is privately-owned, with 40 staff and over 30 clients among some of Australia’s top companies, including ANZ, Caltex, Elders, Fosters, Glaxo Smith Klein and Optus. Over 50,000 people in a dozen countries participate annually in its programmes, and its work has been recognised with many local and international industry awards. It has grown by 70 percent in the last two years and has the objective of doubling over the next four.

Solterbeck’s role is to deliver increased engagement and performance among client employees and channel partners, working in the key service areas of incentive, recognition and reward; conferences, incentive travel and business events; and employee communications.