ESW Partners/Chicago has reached all the way down under to tap Michael Otten as its new director of business development, always a key slot at any agency.

Formerly, Otten was CEO of Singleton Advertising in Melbourne, Australia. He also has been executive general manager of Crown Casino and consulted for the Skycity group of casinos in New Zealand, Foxwoods in Connecticut, and the Ritz Club in London.

"Further cultivating the casino//hotel category is one of the big rocks we want to move," said Jim Signorelli, ESW's CEO. "We took a long time and went a long way to find Michael, but we were determined to bring in the best person we could find to help us with this objective," added Signorelli. It appears ESW is taking aim at RPM Advertising/Chicago, which has developed an expertise in the casino category. RPM handles advertising for some of the biggest casino operations in the Chicago area and beyond.

At Singleton and other agencies where Otten has worked his clients have included Telestra, Nike, IBM, Honda, AXA, Compaq and Coles supermarkets.