Headspace names Zapata as CMO
Val Kaplan Zapata will join mindfulness and meditation-focused app Headspace as Chief Marketing Officer next month. She will join the senior leadership team and lead a cross-functional marketing team with shared responsibility for acquisition, conversion, and retention.

Zapata most recently held the role of Vice President of Growth Marketing for Hulu, where she led growth marketing efforts across the full subscriber lifecycle, including media, acquisition, lifecycle and analytics. Prior to Hulu, she led growth efforts for both direct-to-consumer and media businesses. Zapata built the business development function at Helix Sleep and worked on market operations and monetisation at Instagram.

“I am thrilled and privileged to be joining the talented team at Headspace,” said Zapata. “At this moment in time, I can’t think of a more powerful mission than spreading health and happiness to all. I look forward to helping a growing member base create healthy wellness routines that last a lifetime.”

Madan joins Birdeye as CIO
Birdeye, an experience marketing platform, has hired Sunil Madan as its Chief Information Officer. He will head up revenue operations, internal technology, and help build processes and infrastructure for scale.

Madan arrives at Birdeye from Zoom, where he served as corporate CIO. At Zoom, he was responsible for defining business transformation and executing operations strategy during a period of exceptional growth for the cloud-based video communications platform. He was also previously responsible for strategically designing and executing RingCentrals business systems architecture.

“Customer experience is so close to my heart, and I just love companies that continue to raise the bar in providing delightful experiences, while having a laser focus on categorical transformations. I’m very excited to bring my playbook to Birdeye to help the company’s founders rapidly scale a successful platform and a vision that matches exactly what multi-location businesses need to thrive,” said Madan.

Criteo brings in Scheel on DEI
Rachel Scheel has become the first Senior Vice President of Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at ad tech company Criteo. She will be responsible for designing and driving Criteos Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programme, collaborating across the organisation to launch strategic initiatives that foster a more diverse and inclusive culture.

Scheel joins Criteo with over 20 years of experience in HR leadership roles. Prior to joining Criteo, she was the Global Executive for Culture, Inclusion, Diversity and Engagement at GE Healthcare. In this role, she was responsible for driving employee engagement for the business along with the diversity and inclusion strategy, and aligning with learning and development, talent, reward, and employee life-cycle mechanisms to do so.

“In my career, I have been a passionate advocate for diversity and making a real difference both inside and outside of an organization,” said Scheel. “I am eager to drive Criteo forward in becoming equitable throughout every level of the company, driving engagement from leadership to management and employees to deliver an inclusive culture.”

Hesse takes seat at head of Akamai board
Content distribution network Akamai Technologies has appointed its current Director and Chair of the Environmental, Social, and Governance committee, Daniel R. Hesse, to Chairman of its Board of Directors. Hesse will succeed Frederic V. Salerno upon his retirement in June.

Hesse has been an Akamai board member since August 2016. He is the former CEO of Sprint and currently serves as a member of the boards at Just Capital and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

“It has been a pleasure to work alongside Fred. He has been a great partner in and out of the boardroom and I thank him for his leadership,” said Hesse. “I am honoured to succeed him as Akamais chairman and look forward to helping the management team increase Akamais role in enabling a connected world of unimagined potential.”

Dreams promotes Hegenbartova to CCO
Lucia Hegenbartova has been announced as Chief Commercial Officer at Swedish financial wellbeing platform Dreams. She will be responsible for building Dreams’ new B2B business unit dedicated to the acquisition and development of B2B partnerships, overseeing all revenue-generating functions across the sales, marketing and customer success departments, and carrying out Dreams’ international expansion strategy.

Hegenbartova joined Dreams in April 2020, serving as Country Manager for Germany and then Head of Customer Success B2B. Prior to Dreams, she was instrumental in the market launch of three other tech startups in a number of senior roles including Chief Operating Officer at Contiamo, VP of Marketing at CrossEngage, and VP of Marketing at Commercetools.

“From day one I’ve been fully on board with the company’s vision of empowering people to feel better about their money, and I’ve been really impressed with how Dreams has already flawlessly delivered on this mission by significantly, and measurably, improving the financial wellbeing of thousands of customers,” commented Hegenbartova.

“These are now really exciting times for Dreams, as the company looks to consolidate its international expansion and growth strategy, and further transform the entire industry. I’m thrilled to be able to bring this bold vision to life, and I look forward to working with some of the world’s most visionary banking partners and help them prevail at the forefront of the emerging financial wellbeing movement.”

BianRosa to take up CPO gig at N26
Mobile banking platform N26 has named Gilles BianRosa as its Chief Product Officer. Taking up the role ‘in the coming months’, he will lead all product teams based across the companys main offices and technology hubs in Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna and New York and be responsible for defining, steering, and implementing N26’s global product strategy.

BianRosa was most recently CPO at SoundClound and, before that, CPO at Samsung Electronics, where he oversaw content and services for Samsung Smart TVs globally. He was also the Co-founder and CEO of FanTV and Vuze.

“After almost two decades in Silicon Valley, Im very pleased to be joining one of the most dynamic product teams in FinTech globally,” said BianRosa. “I look forward to applying my experience from the world of online consumer services to help N26 continue to connect authentically with its customers. Having already begun to redefine banking for customers, I believe that N26 has a unique opportunity to touch more aspects of daily life with their simple, trusted, and delightful experience.”

Freshworks recruits SaaS veteran Epstein as CMO
Stacey Epstein has been brought in as Chief Marketing Officer at Freshworks, a customer engagement software company. She will play a pivotal role in Freshworks’ next phase of growth, leading global marketing strategy for the company.

Epstein was ranked as one of the ‘Top 50 women leaders in SaaS of 2020’ by The Software Report and hailed as the ‘Global CMO of the Year’ by Enterprise IT World. She took SuccessFactors from $10m in ARR through six years of triple-digit revenue growth, an IPO, and subsequent acquisition by SAP for $3.4bn. She went on to join the ServiceMax founding team then went on to serve as CEO of Zinc, which was acquired by ServiceMax in 2019. Epstein stayed on at ServiceMax as Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer until her move to Freshworks.

“With more than 50,000 customers leveraging our modern and highly intuitive solutions, Freshworks has been quietly disrupting several enterprise SaaS categories,” said Epstein. “With a visionary founding CEO in Girish Mathrubootham, who is obsessed with building software that delights both customers and employees—along with a leadership team full of experienced veterans from Atlassian, Oracle, Veeva, and Zuora— the massive opportunity to help transform entire industries is ours to lose. I can’t wait to tell our story.”

Meier arrives to lead digital marketing at Organic
Digital agency Organic has hired Gillian Meier as its Head of Digital Marketing, a new role for the agency. She will be responsible for the creation and delivery of digital marketing strategies across all accounts and disciplines, particular focusing on improving the data and analytics performance, while working closely with Organic’s Creative, UX, and SEO leads to deliver best in class results for clients.

Meier arrives at Organic with 24 years of experience in the digital sphere. She was most recently CEO & Global Head Global Head of BlueMagnet, a business that she founded.

“I have always stood for digital excellence, white-hat, ethics and best practice. Using digital to impact the masses in a positive and meaningful way is not only a skill, but also a weapon with which we can change the world, and it is our duty as digital marketers to use this power responsibly,” said Meier. “These are the ‘Digital For Good’ values that Organic stands for, and these resonate with me to my core. I want to be part of a collective of industry leaders that are committed to driving this message forward.”

Brand Advance turns to Lawson-Wall to direct on people
Melanie Lawson-Wall has been appointed as Director of People and Wellbeing at global diversity media network Brand Advance. She will be responsible for devising and deploying a new HR and wellbeing framework for the business.

Lawson-Wall started her career as a performance coach in the education space and has provided leadership advice to businesses including Deltatre. She is the Founder of Assist Coaching and Text Coaches. Lawson-Wall is also part of the CIPD Steering Group.

“I’m excited to be joining the Brand Advance team, having closely followed the company since its inception and witnessed it go from strength to strength,” said Lawson-Wall. “I’m here to champion the employees that have been critical to Brand Advance’s success so far, and ensure that they can operate in an environment which encourages them to bring their best selves to the workplace and continues to bring their individuality to the fore.”

Bezi? added to board at Infobip
Infobip, a cloud communications company, has welcomed its new Vice President of Planning and Strategy Implementation, Marin Bezi?, to its Board of Directors. He will be responsible for optimising business management including enhancing the go-to-market framework and overseeing revenue operations.

Previously at Microsoft, Bezi? was central to product development and the force behind Microsofts first business intelligence application. After spending eight years at Microsoft’s global HQ in Washington state, he moved to Microsoft’s EMEA HQ in London, where he led the application platform business in over 100 countries. In 2009, he returned to his native Croatia to run his own consultancy firm.

“Im excited to be a part of Infobips story. The feeling is very similar to the beginning of my career when I came to Microsoft. Infobip is a globally recognizable, fast-growing company full of fantastic people. Its great to be part of a company that allows people worldwide to improve the way they live and work, all with the help of technology. I am looking forward to being able to use my knowledge and experience to help Infobip realize its vision,” Bezi? said.

Flashtalking selects Tuminello as strategy VP
Michael Tuminello has been hired as Vice President of Strategy at Flashtalking, an ad management platform. He will be instrumental in bringing Flashtalking’s offerings to market globally across Europe, the US, and APAC and refining them to keep pace with a rapidly changing market.

Tuminello brings varied and deep industry experience to the new role at Flashtalking, with over 15 years in leadership at companies including Integral Ad Science, Innovid, and Sizmek.

“Having watched Flashtalking evolve and lead in the industry, I’ve always been really impressed with the breadth and depth of the offering,” said Tuminello. “I’m excited to guide our ongoing advance into the verification space, particularly as the industry seeks to establish a foundation of trust in the high-value OTT and CTV channels.”

Clarizio takes spot on board at Simpli.fi
Programmatic ad company Simpli.fi has added Lynda Clarizio to its Board of Directors.

Clarizio has previously held the positions of President of US Media at Nielsen, Executive Vice President at AppNexsus, CEO at Invision, President of Advertising.com, and Board Member at IAB, among others.

“True to its name, Simpli.fi has simplified programmatic buying and cross-channel workflow for thousands of independent agencies, enabling them to better serve brands in media planning and buying,” said Clarizio. “I am pleased to join Simpli.fi’s board and look forward to working with Frost Prioleau and Paul Harrison as Simpli.fi continues to grow and expand.”

Brand Metrics expands London team
Dhruv Roy and Sumran Kaul have joined measurement company Brand Metrics as Integrations Manager and Client Lead respectively.

Roy is an accomplished digital advertising specialist, and has held roles in a range of businesses including Microsoft, Apple, DAZN, the BBC, Zee5 and SoundCloud.

Kaul was most recently Senior Manager of Insights at News UK, where he used research and insight to advise clients when planning and executing their marketing strategy and objectives. He has also held insights leadership roles at Ofcom and ITV. 

“Dhruv and Sumran boast impressive technical knowledge and broad experience, but they are also strategic thinkers and passionate team players,” says Anders Lithner, CEO of Brand Metrics. “The response we’ve had from the UK media market has been overwhelming. Providing better insights and audience understanding and consistent, comparable brand lift measurement is resulting in larger campaign investments, winning more campaign pitches, and lower overall measurement costs.”

Kelleher added to mParticle board
mParticle, a customer data platform, has announced the arrival of Eric Kelleher to its Board of Directors.

Kelleher is currently Chief Customer Officer at Okta, where he oversees all of Okta’s customer relationships and is responsible for building its global teams and businesses for professional services, education services, success management, customer support, and subscription renewals. Prior to Okta, he spent 11 years in customer leadership roles at Salesforce. Kelleher was also the first Global Head of Customer Success at LinkedIn Talent Solutions.

“The market for data infrastructure to help teams leverage their customer data to drive personalized customer experiences is exploding,” said Kelleher. “The opportunity is enormous and theyve built a great company with incredible momentum. I look forward to working with the team to help them continue to scale.”

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McCann elevates Powers to president
Suzanne Powers has been promoted to Global President of IPG’s McCann Worldgroup. She will also continue in her as Chief Strategy Officer, expanding her global responsibilities to drive the McCann brand and business both inside and outside of the organisation.

Powers joined McCann in 2013 from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where she served as Global Strategy Officer and led the global development of the agency. Before that, she led global brand strategy at TBWA for more than 10 years.

“As we work together to navigate the impact of transformation currently underway in the global marketplace, Suzannes rich enterprise knowledge and her ability to interpret and develop new models of innovation will be critical for Worldgroup and essential as we seek to accelerate our ability to create growth opportunities for our clients,” said Bill Kolb, incoming CEO of McCann Worldgroup.

McCarthy joins Criteo as CMO
Ad tech company Criteo has named Brendan McCarthy as its Chief Marketing Officer. He will lead the marketing and communications teams across Criteos global markets and will be an integral part of Criteos transformation and innovation strategy to a commerce media platform.

McCarthy arrives at Criteo with nearly 20 years of strategic marketing and communications experience. In his most recent role as Senior Vice President and Head of Communications and Product Marketing for Nielsen Global Media, he was responsible for all aspects of the divisions global marketing and communications organisation including public relations, growth marketing, product positioning, client and internal communications, thought leadership, and reputation and crisis management. Before that, he led Edelman’s global media relations efforts.

“Im inspired by Criteos growth mindset and looking forward to the opportunity to position communications around the companys new vision and strategy,” said McCarthy. “Criteo has an exciting future and the talented team Ive joined has an incredibly compelling story – all underlining the value of Criteos transformative technology.”

ActiveCampaign makes board and exec additions
Cindy Guerra Robbins has joined the Board of Directors at customer experience automation platform ActiveCampaign, while the company has added Dutta Satadip as its first Chief Customer Officer.

Guerra Robbins, a former Salesforce President and Chief People Officer, becomes the company’s first independent board member. At Salesforce, she built a strong corporate focus on supporting employee success to empower company growth and took steps to close the gender pay gap cross-company.

“ActiveCampaign is pioneering the customer experience automation market with its CXA platform,” said Guerra Robbins. “Ive been impressed by the business and culture that Jason and his team have built. The opportunity in front of the company is tremendous and I see ways that I can collaborate and add value with my experience serving as a significant contributor to the board. The companys put people first ideals resonate strongly with me. I truly believe that creating an equitable, diverse workplace helps create an even better platform.”

Satadip will be responsible for ensuring customer success for all 120,000 ActiveCampaign customers, with a specific focus on improving customer satisfaction, increasing engagement, and strengthening support. He joins from Pinterest, where he spent three years leading their global customer success and operations team. Prior to that, he spent six years at Google and has also served in management roles at Confirmit and Hewlett-Packard.

“The fact that ActiveCampaign is a hyper-growth company highlights the financial benefits of making and keeping our valued customers happy,” said Satadip. “Im especially excited about the opportunities to drive customer success on a global scale.”

Gim promoted to CMSO at Rapp
Omnicom’s Rapp Worldwide has elevated John Gim to the position of Global Chief Marketing Sciences Officer. He will remain focused on his key clients and leading Rapp’s Marketing Sciences Center of Excellence but will also be responsible for leading and bringing together Rapp’s pool of marketing sciences experts.

During his tenure at Rapp, Gim has served in various roles across the organisation’s analytics and marketing sciences teams, worked with a variety of clients, and helped Rapp secure victories in various data driven award shows and data science competitions. Before Rapp, he led analytics teams at agencies including Epsilon and TBWA\Chiat\Day.

“Its a privilege to lead our practice forward, as we aim to help accelerate transformation for our clients,” Gim said. “As the landscape of advertising and data continually and rapidly changes, its a necessity now, more than ever, for brands to evolve and keep pace. Im immensely proud of RAPPs talented people, our heritage and all that weve built and accomplished, but am all the more excited for our future – as we aim to push the boundaries in marketing sciences innovation and build stronger, more valuable partnerships with our clients.”

LiveXLive turns to Williams on talent partnerships
Roe Williams has been hired as Global Head of Talent and Artist Partnerships at livestream and on-demand audio platform LiveXLive.

In 2016, Williams founded Global Think Entertainment (GTE), a talent procurement and consulting agency. Under the GTE umbrella, she most recently served as General Manager of the Art@War record label. In 2010, she served as Managing Partner and Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at KWL Enterprises.

“My career trajectory has always been about artists first, which is very much the centerpiece of LiveXLives flywheel philosophy in all of the platforms they operate. The ability to join a team with this level of skill, creativity and future thinking made it an easy choice for me,” Williams commented. “The music and entertainment industries are in the midst of a revolution. LiveXLive is leading the way not only in streaming live and pay per view, but in multiple innovative and original formats from awards shows to podcasts to virtual festivals. I am joining to help keep the company ahead of the creative and cultural curves in entertainment and music by partnering authentically with artists, audiences and brands.”

Kaplan takes charge of Kinetic
WPP out-of-home agency Kinetic has announced Keith Kaplan as its Global Chief Executive Officer. He plans to roll out his vision focused on people, offerings, and innovation that include investment in the professional development of the Kinetic’s teams, development of new tools and offerings, and innovative ways for agencies and brands to connect with people as OOH technologies advance.

Kaplan helped build a global ad network at Adconion (now Amobee), led Global Client and Agency Development for Yahoo, and spearheaded global monetisation for King Digital Entertainment, a division of Activision.

“I have always passionately believed that out-of-home is a severely undervalued medium with an extremely bright future. However, the world has never given a reason for out-of-home to accelerate its pace of change until now,” said Keith Kaplan, Global CEO, Kinetic. “The industry is on the verge of a major transformation, and my priority is to put us at the centre of it all. Ive also known the Kinetic team for a long time, and that experience tells me that they are ready for the revolution.”

Tommy opts for Strachan to lead LA
Dougal Strachan has been appointed as Senior Vice President for Los Angeles to digital creative agency Tommy. He will lead the agency’s Los Angeles’ team of digital designers, developers, producers, strategists, and creatives, supported by a global accounts team to continue the growth of Tommy’s presence in the US.

Formerly Senior Vice President of Marketing at Twentieth Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company, Strachan boasts a 20-year career in digital marketing and brand strategy for the entertainment industry. He was instrumental in the digital marketing campaigns for franchises such as Star Wars, Avatar, X-Men, and Ice Age and, more recently, developed and led the innovative international marketing campaigns for break-out hits such as Kingsman, Deadpool, and Bohemian Rhapsody.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Tommy’s body of work over the years and I share their passion for disruptive thinking and experimenting with technology to bring ideas and storytelling to life,” said Strachan. “The Tommy team have a great reputation within the industry and I feel privileged to be a part of that and excited to work with this talented team to grow the business”

Thompson and Wooller arrive at Croud
Croud, a digital marketing agency, has hired David Thompson as its Chief Technology Officer and Sophie Wooller as Director of Digital Transformation for its Serpico in-housing division.

Thompson’s almost three-decade-long career in technology spans the media, healthcare, mobile, transport, and aero-military industries, where he held senior positions at NXP and Hewlett Packard, as well as board-level and CXO positions in start-up organisations. He has also founded two VC-backed product and media companies, conducting business throughout Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan.

“Croud has proven itself to be forward thinking when it comes to technology, even building its own proprietary tech platform – Croud Control – to manage its network of 2,500 Croudies,” said Thompson. “I’m looking forward to building on and guiding the technical direction of the agency as we invest even more heavily into the technology and data solutions, and advancing the way both the agency and our in-housing business Serpico operate.”

Wooller will be responsible for spearheading the development of Serpico by Croud, which launched in May 2019. She was most recently Head of UK at The Programmatic Advisory and, prior to this, ran data and technology products and services at iProspect. She also previously worked on the global Dentsu Aegis business strategy team.

“I’m excited to take Serpico by Croud to the next level, using my experience in a wide range of digital disciplines to help brands on their in-housing journeys – whether they are looking for training and consultancy, or access to on-demand talent in order to effectively manage the peaks and troughs of demand that we have seen exemplified this year,” said Wooller.

Cavai welcomes Holst Eckbo as CMO
Janicke Holst Eckbo has joined conversational advertising cloud Cavai as its first Global Chief Marketing Officer.

Holst Eckbo was most recently Market Development Director at Schibsted Media Group, where she ran a department which positioned Schibsted Marketing Services as the preferred partner for advertisers and media agencies. There, she headed up insights & analytics, agency and programmatic development, and product and B2B marketing. Prior to this, she was Managing Director, Norway at Amnet and Commercial Director, EMEA at MediaMath. Holst Eckbo has also held senior roles at Twitter and Fandom (formerly Wikia).

“Conversational advertising is one of the few unexplored territories in media. There is so much potential for brands to boost engagement and connections with their audiences – understanding customer wants and needs – and Cavai’s technology enables advertisers to do just that,” Holst Eckbo commented. “My goal will be to communicate the power of conversational advertising in general and Cavai’s platform in particular – and take it to global markets. I anticipate significant growth over the next 12 months and can’t wait to get started.”

West to lead partnership initiatives at Vibes
Mobile marketing platform Vibes has recruited Patrick West as its Vice President of Global Partnerships & Alliances.

West arrives at Vibes with almost two decades of executive leadership and marketing experience. Most recently, he served as a Director and Global Partnership Lead at Adobe, where he helped enterprise brand marketers and agencies establish innovative partnership models.

“From my experience, consumers today want to be heard, understood and valued,” said West. “Mobile continues to allow for that exchange in a highly personal way we havent seen before in marketing as content and context continue to converge. It enables brands to have a real relationship with their customers while treating them as real people. At the moment, most brands are just scratching that surface of whats possible. At Vibes, my mission will be to go beyond the tactics and help organisations build a true mobile marketing ecosystem that delivers valued brand relationships.”

Tappx makes host of hires and promotions
Since March 2020, mobile ad tech firm Tappx has made 17 hires and six promotions, increasing the size of its workforce by 60 per cent. The most recent of those are the promotion of Aitor Ruiz Fernández and the hires of Ricado Guimaraes, Claudia Michaelsson, and Vikramaditya Singh.

Ruiz Fernández has been promoted to Director of SSP Operations from Head of Programmatic Demand. His goal is to maximise revenue whilst ensuring best-in-class customer service quality for publishers and advertisers alike.

Guimaraes has joined Tappx as Demand Business Developer, having previously worked at AT&T’s Xandr. He will focus on expanding the company’s US market share.

Michaelsson has arrived as Senior Supply Manager and Singh as Performance Growth Manager. Both previously worked at Billy Mobile. Singh will focus on diversifying and increasing the number of revenue sources from mobile content areas and, together with Michaelsson, will help to onboard, integrate, and configure new publishers and live media sources.

Frei named CEO at Swaarm
Swaarm, a Berlin-based performance-based marketing platform, has appointed David Frei as its Chief Executive Officer. He will leverage his experience in consulting and technology sales to help drive Swaarm’s growth.

Frei most recently served as Senior Manager of Business Development at Here Technologies.

“The Swaarm founding team has built world-class performance-based tracking and optimization technology that offers the best value for money platform in the market, and our first clients are already seeing success,” said Frei. “With the recent seed funding of EUR 800K by serial investors Ilona van Megen and Rudolf van Megen, Supervisory Board Member of DE-CIX Group AG, we have the trust of Germanys start up pioneers and the ability to accelerate the business. My goal moving forward is to bring Swaarm to the global market to enable more and more clients to benefit from the power of automation and to help them make each action simpler, faster and better.”

Behave appoints Westoby to direct on research
Dr Nikki Westoby has been hired as Research Director at behavioural consultancy Behave, a subsidiary of behavioural planning agency Total Media Group. She will lead the development of the consultancy’s research and provide a layered approach to human understanding for both clients and new business prospects across Total Media.

Most recently, Westoby was Director of Neuroscience at Nielsen, where she was in chare of research undertaken by the European Consumer Neuroscience and Behavioural Insights team. She also co-founded the Secure Perception Research consultancy to conduct research for the Bank of England and helped establish Kantar’s Consumer Neuroscience team.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Behave in this genuinely exciting new role,” said Westoby. “The range of behavioural tools available to us present a world of opportunities for businesses and can help them overcome any number of challenges. It’s my aim to ensure behave stays at the cutting edge to continue to deliver best in class results for clients.”

Hussey to lead creative operations at Jaywing
Integrated agency Jaywing has announced Nick Hussey as its Creative Operations Director. He will be responsible for integrating internal processes across the recently restructured business to ensure its clients receive the highest quality, innovative creative campaigns, and seamless production.

Formerly Chief Operations Officer at Forever Beta, Hussey also held the role of Creative Operations Director at McCann Manchester, where he led the operational growth of Aldi. He is also one of the original members of Mother.

“I’m delighted to be joining the fantastic talent at Jaywing and I’m looking forward to this new challenge,” said Hussey. “Jaywing has a strong reputation in the industry and I’m thrilled to work with a company that has such an impressive service offering.” 

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SAP adds Bendiek to Executive Board
Sabine Bendiek has been appointed to join the SAP Executive Board as Chief of People Officer and Labour Director. Starting in early 2021, she will lead the Human Resources organization and people strategy for SAP. This includes attracting the best talent in the industry, providing a growth and learning environment for employees, and ensuring a consistent leadership culture to enable inclusion, accountability and agility.

Bendiek is currently Microsoft Germany Management Board Chairwoman. At Microsoft, she oversaw an increase in cloud growth of 50 per cent in 2020. She also drove the move of the business to the cloud, which significantly contributed to Microsofts strong position in Germany. Prior to Microsoft, she held various roles at companies including Nixdorf, Siemens Nixdorf, McKinsey, Earlybird Venture Capital, Dell, and EMC. Bendiek is a member of the supervisory board at Schaeffler.

“SAP is recognized throughout the industry as a growth company and its people are crucial to its ongoing success,” said Bendiek. “In any successful organization, business growth and the people strategy must work hand in hand. I thank the SAP Supervisory Board and Executive Board for putting their full trust in me to lead the people and operations functions that are the heart of SAPs ongoing transformation.”

Tomlinson added to team at Three
Mobile network Three UK has hired Mike Tomlinson as its Managing Director of Business. In the newly created role, he will develop Three’s B2B presence in the UK, building on its SME offer announced in 2019 and its established private networks division.

Tomlinson has a wealth of experience in the telecoms industry, having previously held roles at EE, Virgin, and BT. Most recently, he advised tech and telecoms firms on the broader B2B market.

“I’m delighted to be joining Three and I’m excited by the opportunity to scale our growing business division,” said Tomlinson. “Businesses of all sizes need a resilient network partner and the major technology investments that the company is making make Three the perfect choice.”

Alongside Tomlinson’s arrival, John Dunican has taken on an expanded role of director of MVNO and Carrier Services for Three UK Ireland, having been Head of Wholesale at Three Ireland since January 2017.

MMA selects Griesser to direct Germany
Katja Griesser has been named as the Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) Germany Country Director. She follows Daniel Rieber, who initiated the chapter together with Chairman Mark Wächter in 2016.

Griesser is a marketing and media expert with 16 years of industry experience. She started her professional career with Sky Deutschland being responsible for Marketing Partnerships along with international e-commerce projects. In 2009, Griesser joined Telefónica Germany as General Manager for netzclub.net. Later, she was promoted to Global Head of Sponsored Data, becoming responsible for developing all sponsored mobile products in Europe and Latin America.

“Mobile Marketing has become increasingly dynamic and complex and it’s hard to be on top of every digital discipline,” commented Griesser. “The MMA is the platform which unites the most influential and relevant brands, marketing professionals, and tech providers globally, who exchange their insights and know-how. This helps the members significantly to make fact-based and better decisions on important marketing questions.”

Green takes up senior marketing role at Teespring
Social commerce platform Teespring has chosen Les Green as its Vice President of Marketing. He will use his expertise to continue the company’s development as a leading platform which empowers and enables creators to develop their personal brands and engage with their fans.

Green moves to Teespring from his previous roles as Nike Africa’s Marketing Director, and Global Brand Director for Nike Sportswear. His time at Nike also saw him relaunch Nike’s customisation service, Nike By You (formerly NikeiD), as Senior Marketing Director.

“The future of commerce will be social,” said Green. “We already see that content and culture have moved to being primarily driven by social media so it’s inevitable that commerce will follow suit. I am excited to move to a company unrivalled in the space – where any relevant creator can scale their influence in almost any arena and reap more of the benefits by connecting directly to their fans.”

Criteo names Glickman as CFO
Sarah Glickman has joined internet advertising company Criteo as Chief Financial Officer. She will serve as both Criteos principal financial officer and principal accounting officer, and will replace Dave Anderson, who served as interim Chief Financial Officer for four months.

Glickman brings 30 years of global finance and transformation experience to Criteo. She most recently served as Acting Chief Financial Officer for 20 months at XPO Logistics. There, she oversaw the execution of a comprehensive restructuring program, expanded global shared services, and optimised finance processes and systems. Before that, she held operational Chief Financial Officer roles at Novartis and Honeywell International.

“Its an exciting time to join Criteo. I have immense respect for everything Criteo has been able to achieve as a global leader in advertising technology,” said Glickman. “I look forward to working alongside this talented leadership team to continue to grow and transform the business.”

Qian takes charge of Kwalee’s business dev in China
Mobile game publisher Kwalee has selected Penny Qian as the Head of Business Development in its new China-based office. Her experience includes roles at AppLift, Tencent, and Applovin.

Qian, and the Beijing office, will work alongside Kwalee’s existing team in the UK and India. The focus of Kwalee China will be on business development, marketing, and third-party publishing.

“Having worked in the games industry for over three years, primarily within mobile, I’ve long been an admirer of Kwalee and their amazing growth in the hypercasual space,” said Qian. “When the opportunity arose to be a part of this success story and to help the business really grow in China, I couldn’t turn it down. I’m looking forward to using what I know and my connections to really help grow Kwalee in China, and can’t wait to see the great games that come out of this as a result.”

iRobot opts for Smith as CMO
Kiran Smith has taken up the role of Chief Marketing Officer at iRobot, the robotics company behind the famous Roomba vacuum. She will help guide iRobot through an exciting period of growth and transformation as they look to evolve the brand to be synonymous with seamless, personalised digital experiences, and develop a more personal relationship with consumers.

Smith was most recently CEO of Arnold Worldwide. Before Arnold, she held several brand marketing leadership roles at Brookstone, Stride Rite, and two of the largest supermarket chains in the US. Earlier in her career, she held leadership positions at Accenture and Alliance Consulting Group.

West to lead development at Access
Access, an integrated marketing and digital agency, has hired Mark West as its Head of Development.

West leaves CTi Digital after seven years, where he held senior positions including Head of Drupal, Head of Support and Digital Consultant. Before this, he was a lead Drupal developer at TalkTalk and web executive at Carphone Warehouse.

“I am looking forward to this exciting new challenge and the opportunity to nurture the burgeoning development team here at Access,” said West. “Im keen to bring my experience of production practices and processes into the agency, to ensure we continue to offer agile, high quality delivery as we grow to meet ever-increasing client demands.”

Fingerpaint elevates Bartolomeo and O’Malley
Nick Bartolomeo has been promoted to Head of Media and Performance Marketing, and Bryan O’Malley lifted to Head of Technology and Performance Innovation, at Fingerpaint, a health and wellness-focused marketing agency.

The pair will co-lead the newly formed Shift Performance Center of Excellence, which will focus on driving brand performance through a proprietary mix of big data, best-in-class technologies, and highly skilled industry experts. Bartolomeo and O’Malley will be responsible for promoting and expanding the capabilities of Shift Performance, as well as continuing to cultivate the team and its expertise.

“I am looking forward to working alongside Bryan to drive the vision for Fingerpaint’s Shift Performance Center of Excellence and build upon the proven success we’ve demonstrated for nearly five years,” said Bartolomeo.

“We’re bringing together the best of human expertise and cutting-edge technologies to address our client’s toughest business challenges,” O’Malley added. “I’m excited to be co-leading Fingerpaint’s Shift Performance Center of Excellence with Nick.”

Mitra arrives to lead client servicing at Blink
Full-service digital agency Blink Digital has named Ratnapriya Mitra as its Vice President of Client Services. She will oversee fulfilment of client goals and over success of the client portfolio at the agency.

Mitra is a practiced marketing professional with over 15 years of experience at companies such as the McCann Worldwide group, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, J. Walter Thompson, and others.

“I’m enthused to join a team of such talented and hardworking people,” said Mitra. “Knowing that this is the team behind so many award-winning campaigns is a testimony to Blink’s dexterity that drives such meaningful work for our clients. I’m looking forward to driving more novel, creative solutions while ensuring we are at our efficient best.”

CHS welcomes four new faces
Communications and content agency CHS has recently appointed a flurry of new hires. It has enlisted Jessica Wicks as its Marketing Manager & Content Producer. Sophia Wareham, formerly of Beep! Digital, joins as a Senior Creative. Hannah Kent joins as a Junior Creative, and Kirsty Haville has joined as a Photographic Stylist, previously Creative Coup.

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Tzikakis takes to Sitecore helm
Customer experience management company Sitecore has named Steve Tzikakis as its Chief Executive Officer. Effective immediately, he takes over from Mark Frost, who will continue as an advisor to the company.

A 13-year veteran of global enterprise application software company SAP, Tzikakis spent the last five years as President of SAPs South Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

“I am very excited to join Sitecore, the category leader in the end-to-end digital experience space, especially at a time of such monumental change,” said Tzikakis. “Our customers and partners can expect to see us accelerate our global expansion plans and innovation of more market-leading cloud and SaaS solutions, while further increasing our customer centric DNA.”

Genesys turns to Swartz to lead on finance
Brian Swartz has been hired as the Chief Financial Officer at Genesys, a cloud customer experience solution provider. He will oversee all financial aspects of the company, including financial planning and analysis, accounting and financial reporting, tax, treasury and internal audit, as well as its sourcing, facilities and information technology organisations.

Swartz arrives at Genesys from Cornerstone OnDemand, where he was CFO since 2016. Prior to Cornerstone, he served as CFO for Zulily and, before that, was CFO at Apollo Education Group.

“Its truly an exciting time to join Genesys as the company drives the contact centre market forward on the cloud transformation journey,” Swartz said. “The company has enormous opportunity to disrupt the industry by making it possible for any organization to forge deeper connections with customers so they can finally deliver on the promise of personalization and elevate the overall customer experience.”

Brown promoted to take charge of audience measurement at Nielsen
Nielsen, a measurement and data analytics firm, has elevated Scott Brown to the role of General Manager of Audience Management. In this new role, he will continue to innovate Nielsens measurement products and ultimately drive the unification of linear TV, advanced TV and digital solutions.

Previously, Brown served as Chief Technology Officer for Nielsens measurement products. In that role, he led the technical implementation of its measurement products across mobile, computer and connected TVs including the migration of its infrastructure to the cloud.

“Marketers and publishers want to understand their audience across all platforms in a simple way. They want to understand where the true incremental reach comes from and how different platforms and services perform to ultimately help inform both advertising strategies as well as program and content decisioning,” said Brown. “Nielsen has historically measured media types and platforms independently.  However, as convergence across all media types continue, the industry will require a single methodology for a holistic view that captures how digital, connected TV and other platforms perform alongside linear TV.  This is the holy grail.”

Malwarebytes expands customer-focused leadership
Kelly Hall, Jennifer Mullin, and Kirstin Hornby have all joined cybersecurity company Malwarebytes.

Hall joins as Vice President of Customer Success, coming to the company from Vision Critical, where she served as Chief Customer Officer, leading the post-sales experience including everything from support to education and customer experience. At Malwarebytes, she will create new tools to maximise value realisation for the company’s customers.

Mullin, Vice President of Product Marketing & Customer Insights, will lead product marketing, communications, and insights. She started her career at Gap, before joining the internet revolution early by leading the product team for search, directory for Infoseek (acquired by Disney). She was also an early employee at Evite.com and led global marketing for LeapFrog, helping the company go public. Mullin led the Digital Lab at VF Corporation before joining Malwarebytes.

Hornby arrives as Vice President of Growth Marketing, where she will lead the growth marketing organisation, including online and performance marketing and retention/lifecycle marketing. She joins Malwarebytes from Rakuten, where she was Vice President of Marketing and Customer Service for the marketplace division. She has worked across a variety of industries, with a focus on consumer digital marketing, including marketing leadership roles at PayPal, Gap, Polyvore, and Yahoo.

“This year has been one of decisive change for Malwarebytes to create more value and serve our customers better – and position the company for long-term growth,” said Marcin Kleczynski, CEO and Co-founder of Malwarebytes. “We continue to attract new talent into the company in order to help us attain these goals and I am thrilled to welcome Kelly, Jennifer, and Kirstin to the team. These incredible leaders bring a consistent, customer-driven mindset and expertise that will be critical to accelerating our growth in the coming years.”

Wolberg takes seat on CalAmp board
Telematics firm CalAmp has announced that Kirsten Wolberg has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

Wolberg is currently Chief Technology & Operations Officer as DocuSign. Previously, she worked at PayPal, where she held several roles, including Vice President of Technology and was the principal executive leading the PayPal separation program as part of the eBay/PayPal tax-free split. She also led Salesforce IT as Chief Information Officer. Additionally, she held several technology, product and operations roles at companies such as Charles Schwab, InnoVentry, and CSC Index.

“I am honoured to have the opportunity to join CalAmps Board of Directors, and be part of this journey,” said Wolberg. “I look forward to driving CalAmps continued growth and digital transformation for our partners and customers worldwide.”

Criteo announces Board changes
Megan Clarken, who is the company’s Chief Executive Officer, has been added to the Board of Directors at internet advertising company Criteo. The appointment follows the decision Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Criteo’s Co-founder and former CEO, to step down from the Board.

“Over the years, Criteo has built very valuable assets,” said Rudelle. “I wish Megan and the team all the success to write the next chapter of this great company.”

Hardisty takes on CTO role at Eyeo
Eyeo, the makers of Adblock Plus, has selected Stephen Hardisty as its Chief Technology Officer. He will work closely with CEO and Founder Till Faida and COO Jutta Horstmann.

“We are very happy that we could convince Stephen Hardisty to join us as eyeo’s new CTO and look forward to having him shape the company’s tech vision and strategy,” said Horstmann. “We are convinced that the strong technical background and leadership experience he gained at companies like Etsy, Rocket Internet and ImmoScout24 make him a perfect choice for this position and that he is exactly what eyeo needs at this point.”

Former CTO Felix Dahlke has left to take up the role of CTO at PolyPoly, while the company’s CFO, Steffan Kiedel, has also left to work on his own business. Kiedel’s responsibilities will be taken over by Thomas Schenkelberg, Vice President of Finance.

Takumi opts for Meadows to lead new creative division
Jim Meadows has been appointed Chief Strategy Officer at Takumi, putting him in position to lead the company’s creator-first influencer marketing division, Takumi X.

Meadows has managed social media content for brands including Virgin Media, Redbull and British Red Cross and, previously, co-founded specialist agency Commit.

“I have admired Takumi’s campaign content for many years and am so pleased to be joining this organization at such a pivotal point,” said Meadows. “Takumi has paved the way in the influencer marketing industry, and we are looking forward to guiding clients to uplevel their marketing with more realistic, authentic, diverse and culturally relevant content than ever before through Takumi X.”

Fuller added to Lewis Board
Marketing agency Lewis has appointed Andrea Fuller to its Advisory Board. She will provide advice and share insight with the LEWIS team on an ongoing basis.

Fuller, who was most recently Vice President of Communications at Citrine Informatics, has over two decades of marketing and communications experience working with consumer and B2B brands.

“I have always valued my relationship with the company and am truly honoured to accept this appointment. I look forward to leveraging my years of experience to help Lewis drive the marketing industry forward,” said Fuller.

Pubguard appoints Curran and Ngai to leadership roles
Andy Curran has been named Chief Executive Officer and Alan Ngai as Chief Operating Officer at Pubguard, a malvertising platform subsidiary of Bidstack.

Curran will focus on positioning the company as the most agile platform to respond to the evolving threat landscape. He joins Pubguard’s leadership team from Bidstack, where he was Head of Growth and responsible for scaling up and aligning the development and commercial teams within the group.

“Pubguard is one of the most recognised companies in its space and has brought great value to Bidstack’s in-game offering since the acquisition last year,” Curran commented. “The company has now been fully integrated into the group, ready for a relaunch, and this coupled with the recent shift in market dynamics means now is the perfect time to ramp up and scale to fulfil  its massive potential for growth.”

Ngai will lead on Pubguard’s day to day operations and business growth. In tandem, he will continue to lead the programmatic product development side of Bidstack’s in-game offering.

“Having worked in ad tech for almost 10 years, the Pubguard role is a unique opportunity to help tackle an ongoing issue that has plagued the industry since I started working in the programmatic space. I’m excited to be a part of this company’s future successes,” Ngai said.

Justin Wenczka, Pubguard Founder, will be stepping into an advisory role as he explores new opportunities.

Sanford takes charge of data science at GTB
GTB, a communications agency owned by WPP, has hired Marc Sanford as its Global Chief Data Science Officer. He will oversee a data and analytics team that spans six continents and over 50 offices worldwide.

Sanford brings 20 years of data, analytics and technology experience to the role. Prior to this appointment, Sanford was Senior Vice President of Consumer Insights and Analytics at Wunderman Thompson. Here, he helped create the first fully automated analytics approach and build the companys AI division, working across many brands, including T-Mobile, Microsoft, Japan Airlines, and Adidas. Prior to that role, Sanford led the business analytics team at Zillow.

“Putting data at the centre of everything we do is essential to have the deepest understanding of the consumer. Human behaviour is the best signal for understanding what, how and when to communicate effectively with consumers in ways that provide a competitive advantage. Were excited to have Marc help lead that charge in this newly created role,” said Robert Guay, Global Chief Executive Officer at GTB.

4A’s Foundation adds five to Board
Walter Geer III, Executive Creative Director of Experience Design at VMLY&R; Vann Graves, Executive Director of the Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University; Ashley McGowen, Global Lead for Business Equality at Facebook; Sara Porritt, Senior Director of Integrated Media Planning and US Diversity and Inclusion Lead at OMD; and Renee Jennings, Chief Financial Officer at Joan Creative, have all joined the Board of Directors at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) Foundation.

“The 4As Foundation has always been committed to driving diversity, equity and inclusion across the advertising and marketing industry. The appointment of these five incredible leaders will further strengthen our team as we continue to advocate for change and advance our mission of building an industry that is truly as diverse as the populations we serve. We are thrilled to welcome Walter, Vann, Renee, Sara and Ashley to our Board,” said Simon Fenwick, Executive Vice President of Talent, Equity & Inclusion at the 4A’s Foundation.

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John Legend takes charge of music at Headspace
Meditation app Headspace has appointed award-winning singer-songwriting megastar John Legend as its first-ever Chief Music Officer. Legend will work closely with Headspace Studios, Headspaces new multi-platform studio creating and distributing mindful living content, to harness the power of music to enhance members mindfulness journeys.

Legend’s appointment coincides with the Headspace’s launch of ‘Focus’ mode, which is aimed at helping its members to tune into what matters most to them.

“Im so excited to join the Headspace team as Chief Music Officer,” said Legend. “Songwriting and performing requires an incredible amount of mental focus, concentration, and present moment awareness. When Im able to cancel out external noise and tune into a state of relaxed concentration, thats when the creativity flows.  Thats why Im looking forward to helping others learn how to focus on whats important to them – and Ill be bringing some of my friends in the music industry along with me for the ride.”

Tumblr looks to City on entertainment partnerships
Terry City has been hired as Vice President of Entertainment Partnerships at Tumblr. He will work to redefine advertising partnerships with the entertainment and technology industries. In addition to advertising opportunities, City will work closely with the product team to guide the creation of new advertising products that allow for the development of bespoke campaigns for some of the industry’s biggest entertainment properties.

City arrives at Tumblr from Vice Media Group, where he held a similar role leading entertainment and technology partnerships. He has also held senior executive roles at Group Nine Media, Buzzfeed, Yahoo, and more.

“Tumblr is the pulse of the internet, and where Gen Z is discovering their next favourite thing, that includes all kinds of entertainment fandoms – from superheroes to anime and everything in between, which made taking on this new role exciting,” said City. “Tumblr as a brand has always been associated with fandom, and reinvigorating our relationships with film studios, TV networks, streaming platforms and other providers is critical as we look to partner with companies in the entertainment space.”

Rosario becomes diversity chief at BBDO
BBDO Worldwide, an advertising agency network, has recruited Jason Rosario as its Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. Based in New York and reporting to President & CEO Andrew Robertson, he will partner with senior leadership to impact agency diversity policy and plans, recruitment, retention, training, education, and leverage of the networks work to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, in the network, the industry, and society at large.

Rosario has worked with top clients including Netflix, Yahoo!, Spotify, Verizon Media Group, and Huffington Post, helping brands identify inclusive practices at the enterprise level. In 2017, he founded The Lives of Men, a social impact creative agency that explores themes around masculinity, mental health and culture. Prior to this, he worked for Verizon Media Group as Manager of Global Diversity & Inclusion and was the Executive Producer and Host of the Yahoo! News original web series ‘Dear Men’.

“We have a unique opportunity to transform BBDO, and the advertising industry at-large, through an intersectional and equitable lens. We want to continue to evolve our agencys mindset to foster a new wave of inclusive culture and accountability, while, of course, doing great and resonant work for our clients. Im excited to take on this next challenge at such an iconic agency and to see our progress in action,” said Rosario.

Social Chain says goodbye to Bartlett and McGregor
Steven Bartlett, CEO and Co-founder, and Dominic McGregor, Co-founder, have both decided to step down from their positions at social-first marketing agency Social Chain. Wanja S. Oberhof, currently Co-CEO of Social Chain will retain his position as CEO.

Bartlett and McGregor founded Social Chain in Manchester in 2014 with the aim of creating a social media publishing and marketing company that would disrupt the traditional marketing industry at a time when social media was undervalued and untapped. Now, Social Chain boasts an owned media reach of over 2bn views per month and has around 750 employees across Manchester, Berlin, London, New York, and Munich. In October 2019, it merged with Lumaland.

“Social Chain was conceived on a small desk in the backroom of the uni I had just dropped out of in Manchester. I was 20, full of wild dreams, and I believed we could take on the world,” said Bartlett. “What started as a crazy and sometimes ridiculed idea, in the mind of a few drop-out underdogs, at a time when people didn’t believe in the potential of this new thing called social media, turned into the most unforgettable ride of a lifetime.

“As I write this, at 27, we have more than 700 Social Chainers around the world, a world-beating team, we went public last year, we are the best at what we do, and we’ve just posted record numbers. The company is showing unbelievable momentum and I remain Social Chains biggest fan, supporter, and believer.”

Johnson chosen by Group Nine to lead content studio
Group Nine Media, one of the biggest video publishers in the US, has named Yosef Johnson President of its in-house branded content studio, Brandshop. He will oversee Brandshops full service creative development team across video, written, design, photography, talent, and creative operations for advertising partners. He will be elevated to Group Nine’s executive leadership team.

Johnson most recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of Brandshop, where he led the branded content studio across creative strategy and production. Prior to the formation of Group Nine in 2016, he was one of the early employees of NowThis and, before that, worked in Creative Account Management and Strategy at Wieden+Kennedy NYC.

“Group Nine is the leading digital media company reaching young people on the platforms where they spend their time – from Snapchat to Instagram, TikTok and beyond,” said Johnson. “I am thrilled to expand my role and to continue to help leverage Group Nine’s deep audience insights and best-in-class creative practices to authentically and thoughtfully connect advertisers to Group Nine’s massive audience.”

DoubleVerify selects Smith to lead on product
Jack Smith has been hired as Chief Product Officer for Demand Solutions at digital media measurement firm DoubleVerify (DV). In the newly created role, he will be responsible for advancing DV’s agency and brand advertiser solutions portfolio, with a focus on high-growth emerging channels, such as CTV. Smith will also lead all strategy and implementation efforts related to scaling the company’s product development and commercialisation activities.

Most recently, Smith was Global Chief Product Officer for Investment at GroupM, where he spearheaded product and technology design, media investment, data management, finance and other critical media agency functions. He also led the global blockchain strategy, made strategic investment and M&A recommendations, and led numerous innovation projects at the company. Prior to this, he was Chief Product Officer at Simulmedia.

“DV is a trusted partner for many of the world’s largest brands and media platforms,” said Smith. “Given my extensive background in digital media and advertising, I’m well aware of the issues around transparency, brand reputation and performance that global brand advertisers face. DV is leading the pack in terms of powering media quality and effectiveness – with exciting innovations in the domains of CTV and performance solutions. I’m thrilled to bring my product expertise to bear in support of the company’s mission – to build a better advertising industry.”

Three leadership changes at Lab
Lab Group, a collection of digital marketing, technology, and creative services agencies, has introduced a new leadership lineup. The agency group has promoted current Finance Director Rachel Howe to the role of Group Chief Financial Officer, and current Talent and HR Manager Priya Unwith to the position of Group Head of People, while hiring Harpreet Bushell as Group Chief Growth Officer.

Howe will be responsible for the group’s finance team, ensuring that all decisions made for the business are commercially sound. She will also support the financial growth of all Lab Group companies and roll out consistent processes and systems across the group.

Unwith will oversee people and talent for the group, covering everything from on-boarding new starters to implementing HR initiatives. She will advise and support Lab Group leaders on HR best practices as well as helping to attract and retain talent.

Bushell, who joined Lab Group from Valtech, is responsible for the overall revenue growth of Lab Group’s agencies, with a key focus on digital business. She is working to help unite all of the group’s revenue earners with achievable targets, and to facilitate teamwork and collaboration.

“I’m delighted to announce our new leadership team at Lab Group,” Jonny Tooze, Lab Group CEO, said. “Harpreet, Priya and Rachel are outstanding leaders and represent our focus on what we view as the three key areas for agency success: great work, people first, and commerciality. This move will give all three of them greater ownership of their specialisms while enabling me to further focus my attention on Lab Group acquisitions and IP development, as we continue to grow both organically and in-organically.”

AnyMind adds to board and management team
Vaibhav Odhekar has joined the board of directors at AnyMind Group, the company behind the POKKT mobile gaming ad platform. Meanwhile, Siddharth Kelkar, Aditya Aima, and Dinesh Kailash Kumar have all joined as Managing Directors.

Odhekar will continue to lead India and the Middle East for AnyMind Group, and will join other board of director members.

“We have put together a strong team, and Vaibhav will undoubtedly enhance this team even more,” said Kosuke Sogo, CEO and Co-founder of AnyMind Group. “We are just about to start a new era of growth, and the combined strengths of our board of directors and management team will propel us further forward.”

Kelkar has been appointed as Managing Director of Performance Business. He will be responsible for equipping performance marketers with the right set of tools by AnyMind Group globally, including offerings by POKKT, AdAsia and CastingAsia. Before joining POKKT, Kelkar held leadership roles in SVG Media, CNBC TV18, The Times Group, and Reliance Games.

Aima has been appointed as Managing Director of Agency Business, and provides marketing, creative and advertising agencies in Southeast Asia with the right capabilities across AnyMind Group’s suite of solutions. He formerly held leadership positions in Culture Machine Media, Astro Malaysia, Bloomberg TV, and Turner Broadcasting System.

Kumar is now Managing Director of Product, with a main focus on POKKT products. He previously held product-related roles in InMobi, Microsoft IDC Bangalore, Yahoo!, Conformia Software Labs, and IonIdea.

“Our management team consists of entrepreneurs and vertical experts, and Siddharth, Aditya and Dinesh can now bring their own unique qualities and expertise to the table,” Sogo added. “With such a vastly expanded business, this move allows us to focus on expanding our existing market share whilst looking at new opportunities for further growth.”

Griffiths and Griffin take up senior roles at Visibilis
Leeds-based digital agency Visibilis has selected Felicity Griffiths as its Marketing Director and Charlotte Griffin as its Client Services Director. Both previously held senior roles on the management team at Jaywing’s Epiphany.

While at Epiphany, Griffiths held the roles of Head of Marketing, while Griffin was the Group Account Director.

“We’re in the middle of a really exciting period of growth, and bringing Felicity and Charlotte on-board has been a pivotal part of this,” said Ben Wolfenden, Visibilis founder. “Both Felicity and Charlotte bring a great deal of experience to the team but crucially, share the same focus and vision for the business that I do and have the right ambition and attitude to ensure we make it happen.” 

TAG chooses Meah to direct on threat intelligence
Danielle Meah has become the first Director of Threat Intelligence at the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG). She will lead the TAG Threat Exchange and work with the industry to foster an effective threat-sharing culture. She will also direct TAG’s role as the ad industry’s first and only Information Sharing and Analysis Organisation (ISAO), including expanding the work of the TAG Threat Exchange to rapidly identify threats to the digital advertising supply chain, share information on those threats across hundreds of companies, and work with law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the criminals involved. 

Prior to joining TAG, Meah was Global Head of Threat Intelligence for Citigroup, leading a cross-regional team of intelligence analysts, collections management staff, and partnership and engagement specialists. In this role, she was responsible for helping create an intelligence-led strategy with Citi’s security leadership to bolster the organization’s network defence posture. Meah has also previously held cyber intelligence roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, LookingGlass, and the US China Economic Security Review Commission.

“Malware and other supply chain threats cannot be effectively addressed by a single company working in a vacuum,” said Meah. “Like sentries in remote outposts, each company has only a partial view of the broader field of battle. By working together, however, our industry can scan the entire length of the supply chain in real-time, watching for emerging threats, then share that information through TAG with hundreds of other participating companies for action. I’m delighted to be joining TAG in this important role, as we expand our threat sharing efforts to build a safer medium.”

Parsons handed CPO gig at Criteo
Internet advertising firm Criteo has chosen Todd Parsons to take up the role of Chief Product Officer. He will lead and oversee Criteos product design and innovation roadmap, playing a critical role in the transformation of the companys technology platform.

Prior to joining Criteo, Parsons served as the Chief Product Officer at OpenX, where he led a global team in establishing the first people-based programmatic marketplace. Previously, as Chief Product Officer of SocialCode, he developed products to activate and measure first-party audiences across Facebook, Amazon, YouTube and other platforms. He also led Acxioms Marketing Services business and founded two startups, Aditive (acquired by Axciom in 2014) and BuzzLogic.

“In the constantly changing advertising industry, Criteo remains steadfast in its mission to provide outcomes for marketers, publishers and consumers alike through its multi-product platform and unparalleled data sets,” said Parsons. “Im thrilled to join Criteo at a pivotal time and look forward to shaping the future of advertising with its talented team.”

Kinetiq looks to Shah on product and tech
Rishit Shah has been hired as Chief Product and Technology Officer at Kinetiq, a TV intelligence platform. He is responsible for designing and implementing a product roadmap to accelerate Kinetiqs platform innovation and align product strategy with customer needs.

Prior to joining Kinetiq, Shah held executive product and technology positions at 7Park Data and Lotame, and launched digital products for The Washington Post.

“I am thrilled to join Kinetiq at such a pivotal moment in the companys growth,” said Shah. “I have a vision, one shared by the rest of Kinetiqs leadership team, of building a truly scalable AI & ML platform that extracts deep artifacts from video files to unite paid and owned media for ads, sponsorships and brand mentions in a way the market has not yet seen.”

Driscoll takes to helm of Elastic Path
Elastic Path, a headless commerce provider, has opted for Jamus Driscoll as its Chief Executive Officer. He will lead Elastic Path into its next phase, widespread market adoption of its microservices-based headless commerce solutions. Elastic Path’s Founder and former CEO, Harry Chemko, will assume the role of Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, reporting to Driscoll.

Prior to Elastic Path, Driscoll was CEO of Moltin, which was acquired by Elastic Path in January 2020. Before that, he held a variety of marketing, product, and sales leadership roles at Demandware.

“The eCommerce market has reached a once-in-a-generation inflection point, as business and technology leaders demand full control over their digital growth strategies. The days of cookie-cutter webshops are over; it’s time to realize a future where unique and ubiquitous digital commerce experiences power the next phase of growth,” said Driscoll. “I’m thrilled to take the helm at Elastic Path, and together with my colleagues, empower businesses to fully realize their digital ambitions.”

Aisle Rocket promotes Freeman to product lead
Noah Freeman has been appointed Head of Product at Chicago-based marketing agency Aisle Rocket. He will lead the agency’s product team to develop data-driven solutions across all digital channels.

Freeman was previously Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Social Fulcrum, a social agency acquired by Aisle Rocket in 2019.

“It was an amazing experience building our Facebook ad product portfolio over the past few years at Social Fulcrum. I can’t wait to broaden that work to more platforms and work on even bigger problems at the new combined Aisle Rocket,” Freeman said. “This is an exciting time to be leading the product team at Aisle Rocket into a new era of innovation, and we can’t wait to show our clients what’s possible.”

Bowers to consult Never.no on innovation
Audience engagement specialists Never.no has brought in Tom Bowers as an Innovation Consultant, with the hope of leveraging his extensive experience in interactive production and further developing an understanding of how content can be made for today’s audience.

Bowers has worked and innovated on major global TV shows & events including The Brit Awards, The Voice, Million Pound Drop, Got to Dance, and Crufts.

“I’m extremely excited to be working with Never.no to continue pushing audience and fan engagement innovation even further. Never.no’s technology solves many challenges faced to broadcasters and production companies in how to successfully engage audiences in a post coronavirus landscape,” said Bowers.

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FreeWheel turns to Whitticom to lead on product
Jon Whitticom has been appointed chief product officer at Comcast’s FreeWheel. Reporting to general manager Dave Clark, he will oversee and define product vision, strategy, design and development and will lead FreeWheel’s global product team.

Whitticom joins FreeWheel from WPP’s GroupM, where he was most recently executive vice president of products for [m]Platform. In that role, he led product teams responsible for developing data management and marketing planning and trading platforms, in addition to creating partnerships with tech companies, to drive growth for GroupM and its clients.

Prior to GroupM, he was at another WPP firm in the shape of Xaxis. As vice president of global product development, he was responsible for driving Xaxis’s global data management strategy and leading the creation of its DMP and analytics platforms. Whitticom has also launched several startups including digital marketing and eCommerce platform Charity Folks.

“FreeWheel’s track record of removing friction from the video marketplace and empowering publishers to better monetise content while also helping advertisers to more effectively engage consumers puts it in a unique position to address the industry’s needs,” Whitticom said. “I’m excited to work with Dave and the FreeWheel team to address advertisers’ demand for access to premium video and more sophisticated, data-driven TV activation capabilities.”

Pogue and Lenois join VaynerMedia executive team
VaynerMedia has hired Wanda Pogue as chief strategy officer and Rob Lenois as chief creative officer. Both will report to chief executive officer and co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk.

Pogue will oversee strategy across the agency’s global offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Singapore. She was most recently chief strategy officer at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where she was instrumental in leading work across the agency’s roster of clients, including Walmart, Procter & Gamble and USAA. Prior to that, she led the strategic vision for brands such as Olay, Tide/Ariel, Head & Shoulders and Trident as global strategy director.

“I am incredibly excited to be joining VaynerMedia,” commented Pogue. “I love their energy, their culture, but above all, I believe and share their ambition to redefine the industry and create a new model that’s not rooted in old paradigms, opinions and vagueness. It’s super exciting to be a part of that.”

Lenois will oversee the agency’s global creative product. He arrives from his role as deputy chief creative officer at Grey New York, which saw him create work for clients such as Volvo, Febreze, Hasbro, and Darden Restaurants. He has also worked at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and BBDO New York.

“My first encounter with VaynerMedia was through Gary’s social content. I connected with his idea of putting people first,” said Lenois. “But once I got to the agency and met with Gary and the team in person, I saw that ‘people-first’ isnt just some marketing jumbo but is very real in the culture. I was also struck by the energy and the tenacity of the agency. Everywhere I turned, people were making and doing: filming, editing, animating and podcasting. In an industry where some of the best ideas don’t make it past a PDF, I was hooked by the culture of ‘make and share’. VaynerMedia is changing the game. They won four Cannes Lions this year, which speaks to their creative prowess and their ability to deliver business results for their clients. I look forward to building on that momentum and creating more results-driven work.”

Sublime makes executive changes
Andrew Buckman has been promoted to chief executive officer, while Marc Rouanet has transitioned to chief revenue officer, at advertising marketplace Sublime.

Buckman joined Sublime as managing director EMEA in 2017 before being handed his previous role of chief operating officer earlier this year. He has been integral in developing strategic partnerships with brands and publishers, as well as driving company growth. AS CEO, he will manage day-to-day operations and focus on developing clear goals and strategies to further increase the company’s footprint.

“It has been a great year for Sublime and we’re excited to see what’s to come as we approach 2020,” said Buckman. “We pride ourselves in offering engaging ad units that don’t intrude on the user experience and I look forward to continuing to promote these solutions, and further build on Sublime’s success to become the leading digital branding platform.”

Rouanet co-founded Sublime in 2012 and, in his new role, will be responsible for driving new business sales and partner strategy. In addition, he will continue to sit on the board of directors where he will play a vital role in the future of the company.

“I am thrilled with the success Sublime has achieved,” said Rouanet. “High-impact, non-intrusive ad formats are the core of Sublime and I look forward to continuing to promote adoption. Andrew has been and will continue to be invaluable to Sublime – his hard work and determination has strengthened Sublime’s impact in the marketplace and will continue to drive the company forward.”

Clarken named Criteo chief
Advertising platform Criteo has appointed Megan Clarken as its chief executive officer, effective 25 November.

Replacing founding chairman and CEO JB Rudelle, who has decided to split his two roles, Clarken arrives on the back of 15 years in various positions at Nielsen. Most recently, she was chief commercial officer of Nielsen Global Media. Rudelle will remain as chairman.

“This is a very exciting time for me to join Criteo,” said Clarken. “Criteo has grown into a truly impressive company, with high-quality assets and talented teams, and Im very honored to lead the company into the next chapter of its development.”

Blippar gets a new boss
Faisal Galaria has been chosen as chief executive officer at Blippar, an augmented reality (AR) technology company. Working closely with founder Ambarish Mitra and chief technology officer Preet Prasannan, he will be responsible for driving Blippar’s commercial growth and development as the company continues to expand its proprietary AR creation and publishing platform post administration.

Galaria joins from his role as chief strategy & investments officer at GoCompare, where he helped lead its IPO on the London Stock Exchange and managed several acquisitions. Before that, he was a senior partner at Alvarez & Marsal and was once senior vice president at Spotify, where he launched the music streaming service in seven countries. Galaria has also held roles at Kayak, Skype, and Ofcom, while he is currently a non-executive director at Superdry.

“Blippar has an amazing provenance in the AR space and is in a strong position post administration with an exceptional team and strong relationships with clients,” said Galaria. “I am delighted to join Ambarish and the team at this important time. We will put our eight years’ experience of creativity, technology and partnerships to work in order to deliver results for our clients and position Blippar for growth.”

Beames chosen as UK GM at Adsquare
Adsquare, a mobile data exchange, has turned to Andy Beames as its UK general manager. Reporting to vice president of sales David Fieldhouse, he will take full ownership of the UK market, focusing on media agencies, trading desks and OOH companies to level up their programmatic buys by leveraging Adsquare’s data marketplace.

Prior to joining Adsquare, Andy was commercial director as well as global data solutions director at Blis, where he was responsible for helping advertisers, media owners and technology companies enhance their location-based advertising strategies.

“Adsquare is in an exciting phase of growth and Andy Beames is the right person to lead us forward in the UK,” said Fieldhouse. “He has exceptional experience in the digital media and location space and we are thrilled he’s joined us as UK general manager.”

MediaCom selects Trenouth as influencer marketing head
Emily Trenouth has been hired as head of influencer marketing strategy at MediaCom. She will lead the influencer marketing offering within MediaCom Beyond Advertising, working across both the UK and worldwide businesses and their clients, including Coca-Cola, Sony PlayStation, Sony Mobile, NBCUniversal, Bose, Direct Line Group, DFS, Tesco, LVMH, and more.

Trenouth takes up the role at MediaCom after two years at Tribe, where she joined as a part of the founding team in 2017 before spearheading the company’s US launch this year. Before Tribe, she worked at Takumi.

“I’m incredibly passionate about this space and so thrilled to be taking my experience from influencer marketing & on-demand content to the UK’s largest media agency at such an exciting time within the category,” said Trenouth. “Clients are rapidly allocating more budget towards influencer campaigns, yet ROI is still raising question marks. I can’t wait to be able to work alongside some of the UK’s leading talent to deliver strategic data-driven influencer campaigns with well-defined and measurable results.”

Chandler and Ferreira become Adjust’s latest senior appointments
Mobile measurement and fraud prevention firm Adjust has acquired the services of Andy Chandler as UK & Ireland general manager and Isabel Ferreira as sales director.

Chandler will focus on scaling Adjust’s operations and growing the team in the UK and Ireland. Boasting over 17 years of ad tech experience, he joins the company from Tapjoy, where he led the development of its programmatic offering as EMEA vice president. He has previously worked at Amazon, Microsoft, and Telegraph Media Group.

“Adjust has helped shape the industry as we know it, bringing topics including privacy and transparency front of mind for mobile marketers,” said Chandler. “The company has developed into one of the European tech scene’s biggest success stories, and I’m looking forward to leading its growth across the UK and Ireland.”

Ferreira will be responsible for expanding the company’s client base in the UK and Ireland. She has almost 10 years’ experience in app marketing and arrives from Appsumer, where she was responsible for developing its footprint in EMEA. She has also worked at MobFox and Supersonic.

Christian Henschel, co-founder and CEO at Adjust, said: “Since launching Adjust in the UK in 2013, we’ve gone from strength to strength – and we now work with some of the region’s most exciting brands. Andy and Isabel’s combined experience in tech, app marketing and SaaS are hugely complimentary, and will be invaluable as we expand on our next period of growth in the UK and Ireland.”

Leo Burnett hands new role to Marcus
Matt Marcus has been appointed to the newly created role of chief experience officer at Leo Burnett North America. Reporting to Leo Burnett Worldwide chief creative officer Liz Taylor, he will be responsible for overseeing multi-channel customer experience strategies that deliver growth for Leo Burnett and its clients.

Marcus has founded two companies and held executive roles at both multinational corporations and startups. Most recently at R/G, he co-founded and ran the artificial intelligence practice and developed the methodology for training global teams. he also oversaw teams for experience design, visual design, brand design and systematic campaign creation.

“This is an amazing opportunity to help one of the most renowned agencies in the world tell its stories through new technologies, in non-linear ways,” said Marcus. “Im so excited that Ill get to partner with Leos talented leaders to bring forward creative solutions that grow brands and build business.”

Livek picked to lead Comscore
Comscore’s board of directors has chosen Bill Livek to be its chief executive officer and executive vice chairman. Having been at the company since 2016, he has also served as executive vice chairman & president as well as principle executive officer.

Before joining Comscore, Livek served as vice chairman & CEO at Rentrak. He has previously served as co-president of Experian Research Services, co-chair/co-owner of Simmons Market Research Bureau, co-founder of Transactional Data Solutions, vice president of sales/marketing for Arbitron and was a principal shareholder in Birch Research, which was later integrated into Scarborough Research, where he served as president and CEO.

“I would like to thank Dale [Fuller] for his guidance and leadership throughout this transition,” said Livek. “I am excited about the prospects that lie ahead for Comscore and the opportunities we continue to believe are ripe for disruption. I look forward to capitalizing on these opportunities and creating meaningful value for our stakeholders.”

Takumi adds new exec, bolster board
Carla Faria has been appointed chief revenue officer at influencer marketing service Takumi, with Mary Keane-Dawson, Sarah Speake, and Rob Forshaw becoming non-executive directors.

Faria will be responsible for driving Takumi’s revenue strategy globally, and will be tasked with establishing new revenue streams to maintain the company’s position as a leading Instagram influencer marketing service.

Keane-Dawson has held C-suite roles at WPP, Steak, Reform, and Collective. She co-founded MyHealthPal and How She Made It, and also sits on the board of London Tech Advocates and the advisory board for the Internet Commission, while being a global ambassador for the British Interactive Media Association.

Speake is a former global chief marketing officer and international sales director with 25 years of media and marketing experience from companies including Google, ITV, and Clear Channel.

Forshaw started his career working for Saatchi & Saatchi, M&C Saatchi, and Wieden+Kennedy, and, subsequently, co-founded Grand Union, which was acquired by FullSix in 2010. He is a board advisor to a number of businesses in the UK and USA.

“We have bolstered our board with some exceptionally talented and experienced professionals who will support the business through continued growth,” said Adam Williams, Takumi CEO. “We will remain committed to developing smart anti-fraud technology and championing collaborative relationships between brands and Instagram creators.”

Magee to direct on data at Syzygy
Syzygy, a digital agency, has opted for Anthony Magee as its director of data & experience technology. Reporting to Syzygy’s UK chief executive officer Ita Murphy, he will lead the agency’s data-led approach to client planning and service, developing its overarching Digital Architects proposition.

Magee was managing partner at digital IQ and has worked with organisations and brands including Mazda, Virgin Experience Days, Xero, Lego, BT, Argos, and Sainsbury’s.

“I couldn’t have found a better home than Syzygy to indulge my obsession with leveraging data science for better customer experiences. I’m looking forward to using intelligent data to speedily and efficiently resolve our clients’ key business issues and engage their audiences,” said Magee. “The data-led planning approach we’re applying across our work means that, whether bringing next generation products to market or improving personalisation, our clients will benefit from tangible ‘Return on Experience’ (ROE).”

Metadata.io names LAbbé as president
Olivier LAbbé has taken up the role of president at AI-powered marketing operations platform Metadata.io. He will lead go-to-market strategy, customer success and business development.

Boasting more than 15 years of experience in strategic sales growth, LAbbé was senior vice president of sales at G2 Crowd. He also served as director of sales at Fliptop, which was acquired by LinkedIn.

“At G2 crowd, I saw numerous customers operationalise their data with Metadata,” said LAbbé. “In fact, G2 Crowd’s marketing team itself uses Metadata with great success. As Metadata rose in the marketing execution software ranks, I took note of their rapid innovation and growth. I am thrilled to join the team and to lead the charge as we aggressively work to bring Metadata’s breakthrough marketing operations technology to market because I’ve seen first-hand how Metadata improves how marketers work and the value it delivers to customers.” 

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Pixalate will work with Criteo across its current suite of products and emerging channels addressing both general invalid traffic (GIVT) and sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT). Pixalate’s Media Rating Terminal (MRT) tool will also be added to Criteo’s protective measures and services.

“Criteo’s partnership with Pixalate is another important step in our ongoing commitment to delivering the best quality inventory for our partners,” said Marc Grabowski, EVP of global supply at Criteo. “Invalid traffic is an ongoing industry issue, and the fight against it cannot be fought alone. By aligning ourselves with a best in class third-party vendor, we’re able to establish additional layers of credible protection alongside our strong existing tools and protocols, in both pre-bid and post-bid environments.”

Jalal Nasir, Pixalate CEO, added: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Criteo, a leading multi-national public company. By implementing our end-to-end anti-fraud solution, from media planning to pre-bid fraud protection, Criteo is demonstrating its commitment to the fight against ad fraud.”

Earlier this year, Pixalate formed a similar partnership with mobile advertising firm AdColony to tackle digital ad fraud within mobile app environments. Elsewhere, Criteo has been having some issues with Facebook, filing a complaint against the social network in France for unfairly favouring its own services.

The post Criteo partners with Pixalate on ad fraud appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Kumar gets gig to lead on Walmart’s technology and development
Walmart has appointed Suresh Kumar to the elevated chief technology officer and chief development officer role. Reporting directly to president and CEO Doug McMillon, he joins to help the retail giant to continue transforming its customer and associate experiences.

Kumar was most recently at Google, serving as vice president and general manager of display, video, app ads and analytics. Prior to Google, he was the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and operations. Kumar spent 15 years at Amazon in various leadership roles, including vice president of technology for retail systems and operations, and he led Amazon’s retail supply chain and inventory management systems. Before Amazon, he was a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Centre.

“Walmart is one of the great success stories in how a company evolves over time to serve the changing needs of its customers, and today, it is in the midst of a very exciting digital transformation,” said Kumar. “With more than 11,000 stores, a high-growth eCommerce business and more than two million associates worldwide, the potential for technology to help people at scale is unparalleled, and I am excited to be part of this.”

OpenX makes a pair of regional senior hires
Programmatic ad tech firm OpenX has hired Andrew Tu as managing director and Cheryl Tan as account director in Asia-Pacific as part of an expansion in the region.

Tu brings more than two decades of experience with him, having launched and scaled global digital and ad tech ventures across APAC. Prior to OpenX, he was The Trade Desk’s first hire in APAC, where he grew the business from ground zero to six offices and a team of over 30. Before that, he co-founded and launched Eyeota, and also launched and expanded Brandscreen.

“OpenX has built a reputation as the highest quality exchange in advertising, and after being on the ground for six months, it’s clear to me that OpenX is meeting a need in the APAC market that no other programmatic exchange can fill,” said Tu. “With a strongly differentiated technical foundation in the cloud, and a disruptive and innovative product pipeline that is unlike anything else in the market today, we are ramping and scaling our business like never before, and we’ll be dramatically increasing the number of partners we have in the region over the coming months.”

Tan joins OpenX from LinkedIn, where she championed the use of programmatic buying on LinkedIn both internally and externally, working with agencies, programmatic buyers and internal stakeholders to drive revenue. Before LinkedIn, she helped grow the digital ad operations efforts of Microsoft and Wego.com in Singapore.

Williams joins Location Sciences as non-exec director
Donald “Donnie” Williams has been appointed as a non-executive director at Location Sciences, a location verification provider, with immediate effect.

Williams has worked at Horizon Media for almost 13 years, serving at the company’s chief digital officer since 2010. He has been instrumental in expanding Horizons digital capabilities, including its performance media services division, as well as its digital experiences practice, and manages a team of more than 300 digital experts in both the New York and Los Angeles offices. Prior to his time at Horizon, he worked at Ignited USA and Carat Global.

“The Board is delighted that Donnie has agreed to join Location Sciences as a non-executive director,” said Mark Slade, Location Sciences CEO. “He brings substantial expertise and knowledge of the US media industry and, in particular, how large US agencies operate. This is an exciting hire for us and we are very much looking forward to working with him as we build Verifys presence throughout the US.”

Omnicom welcomes Tarlowe as treasurer
Rochelle Tarlowe has been named as senior vice president and treasurer at Omnicom Group, succeeding the recently retired Dennis Hewitt. She will be responsible for managing Omnicoms global treasury and risk management function, reporting to chief financial officer Phil Angelastro.

Tarlowe joins Omnicom from Avis Budget Group, where she was senior vice president and treasurer. In addition to managing the companys global $13 billion capital structure, she was responsible for risk management, evaluation of agency relationships, hedging strategies and cash management. Prior to her 15 years at Avis, she served as vice president, senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Services.

“Omnicom is a consistent leader in a dynamic and rapidly changing industry,” said Tarlowe. “I am excited to be joining such a strong financial team and look forward to contributing to the companys continued success.”

Martin arrives at Criteo to lead retail media
Criteo, an internet advertising company, has hired Geoffroy Martin as executive vice president and general manager of retail media. Based in Paris and reporting to COO Mollie Spilman, he will spearhead the firm’s retail media business acceleration.

Prior to joining Criteo, Martin was a private consultant with a focus on growth strategies and innovation. From 2004 to 2015, he held multiple positions at Art.com, including COO and CEO.

“As one of Criteo’s first US customers, I have always known how much value Criteo has to its clients,” said Martin. “As retailers work to engage shoppers at every stage of the purchase funnel, and to strengthen their relationships with their brand partners, Criteo Retail Media is becoming more and more critical in the industry landscape. In my new role, I am eager to build on its initial success and drive value for all of Criteo’s retail and brand clients through best in class solutions and strategic counsel.”

NativeX chooses Zaccaro to lead Brazil office
Carolina Zaccaro has been appointed as sales director of NativeX new Latin America-focused office in Brazil.

Zaccaro’s previous positions include demand-side platform Jampp, where she was a senior sales manager of its LATAM and Spain division. She has over 11 years of marketing and sales experience in the advertising and marketing industry, having previously held positions at Taboola, Teads and Mercado Livre.

“Carolina brings a wealth of experience and know-how to NativeX,” said Tiffany Ou, general manager at NativeX. “Her understanding of the LATAM market will be key as we quickly build out our ability to generate the huge user acquisition numbers in the region, to serve the rapidly increasing demand for effective and affordable app marketing campaigns.”

Trio of leadership changes made at Mobica
Mobica, a global software services company, has made its current executive chairman, Simon Wilkinson, permanent CEO. Meanwhile, Richard Haywood has taken up the role of chairman and Stefan Maxreiter has been appointed chief operating officer.

Wilkinson joined Mobica’s board of directors in March 2017 and has helped strengthen the company’s customer footprint with international brands including Google, Facebook, Intel, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Arm, and Jaguar Land Rover.

“This is such an exciting period of growth for Mobica and I feel the time is right for me to take a full-time strategic role, leading our team to realise the vision of doubling the size of our engineering organisation which will support us in expanding our engagements with a series of leading international brands including multiple Silicon Valley household names and leading car manufacturers,” said Wilkinson.

Haywood, who takes up his seat on the board alongside Wilkinson, holds a number of advisory and non-executive roles within the technology and legal sectors. He is also chairman of Clarilis Limited and a non-executive director of Asterisk Network Solutions Limited.

“I am delighted to be joining the team at Mobica at such an exciting time,” said Haywood. “The company has an impressive customer base and is carrying out world-class innovative work with a total commitment to helping customers achieve their business goals. I am really looking forward to working with the team.”

Maxreiter will be responsible for further developing Mobica’s software delivery capabilities globally. He brings more than 25 years’ experience of building and managing teams within global organisations, 17 of which have been spent within the automotive and services sector. He was previously a senior director in automotive, for both Luxoft and Wind River, and served as a board director at the GENIVI Alliance.

“Mobica works with some of the world’s leading organisations in some of the most exciting areas of technology being pioneered today,” said Maxreiter. “I’m looking forward to strengthening relationships with our existing customers and building new ones across our key sectors.”

Stickyeyes makes management reshuffle
Digital and content marketing agency Stickyeyes has made Glen Conybeare managing director and Phil Kissane group managing director of the wider Stickeyes Group, which includes both Stickyeyes and Zazzle Media.

“Stickyeyes growth has continued to be very strong, with double digit revenue increases for the last five years, down in no small part to our amazing team’s ability to respond to clients’ needs and diversify,” said Conybeare, who was previously Stickyeyes’ chief commercial officer. “We’ve seen continued growth in the services we are perhaps best known for, SEO and Biddable Media, but also phenomenal growth in our Life Sciences division, design and development, content and PR and Demand Generation departments which are all contributing seven figure revenue numbers individually. We’re proud to say that Stickyeyes is truly a full-service digital agency.”

Alongside the changes in management, the company has launched a standalone offering called ‘Life Sciences by Stickyeyes’. This offering, led by Leo Law, is dedicated to delivering digital marketing services within the regulated environment of pharmaceutical and life sciences.

“In Life Sciences by Stickyeyes, we aim to transfer this innovative digital thinking from retail, FMCG and finance [and others] and apply this to the demands of regulated markets,” said Law. “We’ve got the expertise and scale of the IPG Network and the agility and fresh-thinking of a new agency set-up. We’re excited about what we can achieve for clients by shaking up the service on offer and creating a new benchmark for what digital marketing in pharma can be.”

Dashlane brings in Howard to lead marketing
Joy Howard has joined Dashlane, a password manager app, as its chief marketing officer. she will oversee the global marketing function, as well as all policy related initiatives, at the company.

Howard joins Dashlane from Lyft, where she currently serves as chief marketing officer. She has previously held leadership positions at Sonos, Patagonia, Nike, and Coca-Cola.

“For years the tech community has maintained that people don’t care enough about their digital security to invest in real protection,” said Howard. “We don’t believe that this is true. Rather, people care deeply about protecting their digital identities, but lacked the right tool. Dashlane is a powerful yet simple tool that empowers users to control their digital identities. I look forward to helping them build a world class brand and company. We’re committed to helping everyone take back control of their digital identities.” 

In addition to Howard’s appointment, Dashlane has closed a $110m series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital. The funding will see Jim Goetz of Sequoia joining Dashlane’s board of directors.

“While most people are not aware of the magnitude of these issues, an entire economy is booming and growing in sophistication around harvesting and weaponising stolen credentials, with participation from nation-states and cybercriminals,” said Goetz. “We believe this category has the potential to one day surpass anti-virus in size, and we are excited to partner with the emerging market leader as they create and grow the category.” 

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SoundCloud appoints Gabriele to lead subscriptions & marketing
Anthony Gabriele has joined SoundCloud as SVP of subscriptions & marketing. The newly-created role will see Gabriele lead the growth and expansion of SoundCloud’s Listener and Creator businesses, in addition to overseeing its growth marketing and brand marketing, and community support teams.

Based in SoundCloud’s New York office, Gabriele will report to the open audio platform’s chief operating officer, Michael Weissman.

Prior to arriving at SoundCloud, Gabriele was the head of subscription marketing at Apple. There, he helped grow Apple Music from under 10m to over 50m paid subscribers. Before that, he held roles at Amazon and Dow Jones. He is also the president of the board of directors for the Independent International Legal Advocates, a not-for-profit that provides in-house counsel for the public international law departments of small and developing States.

“SoundCloud stands apart. Its where creators build their audiences, and where fans find whats next in music,” said Gabriele. “I’m excited to join the team. As an artist myself, Im passionate about bringing tools to creators, and great experiences to listeners.”

Rajamannar becomes new president of WFA
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) has elected Mastercard’s chief marketing and communications officer as its new president. He will serve a two-year term as president, with the option to extend for a further two years.

Rajamannar has worked for Mastercard since 2013, and has led the company’s marketing transformation, including the integration of the marketing and communication functions, evolution of its Priceless experiential platform, and creation of cutting-edge marketing-led business models into the core of the company.

He replaces David Wheldon, CMO at RBS, who has been president since 2015. Wheldon will continue to serve on WFA’s executive committee as regional VP for Western Europe.

“The opportunity in front of marketers today to make a difference for their brand, their business and even the world is tremendous. I am honoured to pick up and carry the torch as President of WFA, an organization committed to elevating and advancing the activities of our profession, and a role I am convinced will become even more important in the years to come,” said Rajamannar.

Rajamannar’s election is part of a complete leadership reshuffle at the WFA, which has also seen Philip Myers, SVP of global policy and government affairs at PepsiCo, named deputy president.

Naver’s Line gives Shin role as co-CEO
Jungho Shin, chief wow officer at Line Corporation, has been appointed co-CEO of the company. As of 1 April, Line will have two representative directors: Takeshi Idezawa, CEO and president, and Shin.

Shin has been behind the creation of services—including the Line messaging app—and has led the companys growth internationally. As a representative director, he will focus on bolstering the competitiveness of Line’s services and promoting innovation—assuming responsibility for creating services and the companys operations. Idezawa will focus on the management side, as well as revenue, organisational structure, human resources, and recruitment.

Four make moves within MediaCom
MediaCom UK has made changes from within with Claudine Collins, Satin Reid, Danny Donovan, and Paul Cooper all seeing their roles change.

Collins will become the agency’s first ever chief client officer. Reid, previously joint MD of MediaCom London, will be promoted and succeed Collins as the sole UK MD. While Donovan, who shared the London MD role with Reid, will take on the role of MD retail & commerce. Cooper, currently MD of MediaCom North, has also had his role expanded to COO of MediaCom North.

“I’m lucky to be surrounded by a brilliant team and a big part of what makes them so great is their passion for what they do,” said Josh Krichefski, CEO of MediaCom UK. “Claudine, Satin, Danny and Paul have all played important roles for us and they’ll continue to do so. They have all worked closely with me to define their new roles, making sure we are playing to each of their individual strengths. I’m excited for what the future holds for our agency and I’m proud to be leading the charge alongside this team.”

Bidalgo picks Gold to lead UK operations
Ad automation software provider Bidalgo has chosen Oliver Gold as UK country manager as it opens its London office. With 16 years of experience in digital media, Gold will oversee all UK operations for the company, including the development of strategic business relationships with marketers and channel partners.

Before joining Bidalgo, Oliver was UK managing director at mobile adtech company YOC, and he held several leadership positions at companies including Microsoft, Daily Mail Group and Adform.

“I am excited to head up UK business operations and am looking forward to building out a best in class team,” said Gold. “Bidalgo has seen incredible success across EMEA, and the launch of our new Western European hub creates a fabulous opportunity for continued growth and diversification into new markets and sectors. I am very much looking forward to driving this forward.”

Gallinari joins Criteo’s AI Lab
Criteo has appointed Patrick Gallinari, a renowned French researcher of neural networks, to its AI Lab. He will participate in the scientific animation of the Criteo AI Lab and work with a team of researchers to support and advance deep learning research.

Prior to joining the Criteo AI Lab, which was created in June 2018, Gallinari was director of the computer laboratory at Sorbonne University. Here, Gallinari was responsible for the machine learning and information access (MLIA) team. He teaches statistical learning and directs doctoral students on key topics in this field. His work focuses heavily on algorithmic aspects of machine learning, as well as application domains that involve the analysis of semantic data.

“In recent years, the interest and investments in artificial intelligence and deep learning research has risen rapidly in France,” said Gallinari. “The launch of the Criteo AI Lab has contributed tremendous credibility and momentum for this movement. I look forward to lending my academic and industrial perspective to the important work already being done by the world-class research teams at the Criteo AI Lab.”

Monetate hires Rivera as CRO
Richard Rivera has been appointed chief revenue officer of customer experience optimisation and personalisation platform Monetate. He will fortify expansion efforts as the company supports a growing number of retail and other digital experience brands globally across 10 countries.

Rivera brings more than 20 years of business development and customer-centric experience to Monetate with a track record of scaling hyper-growth technology companies. He’s held prior leadership positions with Dialpad, Medallia, Fuze, BMC Software and BladeLogic, is the founder of GenNow Sales Consulting, and author of several books and programmes on sales and consulting leadership.

“Richard brings a fresh perspective to Monetate and his strength in growing billion-dollar technology companies and start-ups help position our company for long-term success,” said Stephen Collins, Monetate CEO. “Our priority is to help brands grow more of their own best customers and to increase overall shopper lifetime value. Richard will be an integral part of continuing and expanding on this mission.”

Noren joins GeoSpock in non-executive capacity
GeoSpock has appointed Pontus Noren to a non-executive role on its board of directors. The move coincides with a £2m investment from Parkwalk Advisors.

Having worked in the IT industry for over 20 years, Noren brings a wealth of experience within the technology ecosystem. He is currently vice chairman of the board at Cloudreach, an international cloud computing consultancy, where he was previously CEO. Noren will now help GeoSpock’s board and executive teams drive the company’s next phase of growth.

“GeoSpock is a hugely exciting company and I’m inspired by its achievements so far, as well as its potential for the future,” said Noren. “With its technology at the cutting edge of spatial big data, GeoSpock helps feed my passion for innovation. I look forward to playing a key role in the delivery of GeoSpock’s vision, and working with my Board colleagues and executive teams to build on the company’s further success.”

The £2m investment from Parkwalk, which will be use to support the company’s international expansion and build on its client accounts, comes on the back of a recently-closed £10m funding round. GeoSpock has now raised a total of £21.25m.

Degree 53 names Benstead as digital director
User development, design, and software development firm Degree 53 has appointed Chris Benstead as digital director. He will be overseeing the day-to-day digital delivery for clients and working alongside the commercial team and prospective clients to ensure they get the most out of their digital strategy.

Benstead has been working as digital strategist at Degree 53 since its foundation in 2013 and has been playing a key role in advising on product development strategy for the company’s clients. He brings over 10 years of digital experience, having previously worked at Betfred and HP. Chris’ background is in the identification of the client’s core business requirements and understanding how and where value can be added to a proposition through the use of digital.

“I’m excited at this opportunity to continue the great work our team has been producing over the years,” said Benstead. “It’s amazing to see how our company has grown and developed since we first started. We’ve gone from working with online gambling clients to those in finance, travel, utilities and education to name a few. I remember when there was only 20 of us in the office and now, there are more than 130 – the company has been growing thanks to our transferable digital skills and a variety of services we are able to provide – from design and development to consultancy and ongoing support. I am lucky enough to see the work the team produces every day for our clients and am excited to help us progress and to lead the team to new opportunities.”

Kosinski joins Tru Optik as EVP of sales
Richard Kosinski has been hired as executive vice president of sales by Tru Optik, an audience intelligence and data-management platform. He will be responsible for growing Tru Optik’s revenue, partnerships, and global expansion.

Most recently, Kosinski served as the managing director of Blue Ocean Partnership, LLC where he focused on new business development for adtech and digital media companies in the US and international markets.  He was also previously president and chief revenue officer for Receptiv, an early stage in-app mobile video company acquired by Verve in 2018 and served as US president of Unruly, a video technology company acquired by News Corp in 2015.  He has also held key management positions at Quantcast, Westwood One, Dow Jones and Yahoo.

“The digital revolution has come full circle with OTT and Connected TV,” said Kosinski. “For 70 years, brands and agencies have looked to the home TV set to reach audiences, build brands and increase both awareness and sales. In OTT and Connected TV, we see a convergence of addressability and accountability, driven by massive adoption of smart TV devices, popular brand-safe content, and robust data – all on a tried and true platform. Tru Optik is leading this revolution and I’m all too eager to enlist.”

Bridge hires Gröger to run German office
Partner marketing agency Bridge has appointed David Gröger to head up its first international office in Berlin, Germany. Under his leadership, the Berlin office will look to grow its portfolio of local clients, which already includes Warner Bros. and Square Enix, across brand and entertainment categories. The team will also work with London to strengthen access to European markets for Bridge’s existing global brands, such as Danone Waters and Visa.

Gröger joins from Sony Pictures Germany, where he worked as head of partnership campaigns, overseeing partnerships such as Angry Birds & Citroen and James Bond Spectre & Heineken. Previous to that he worked as Head of Trade Marketing at Walt Disney Company.

“I’m delighted to be part of BRIDGE’s expansion into Europe,” said Gröger. “Our unique use of technology enables us to identify original and ground-breaking brand partnerships and I know there is huge appetite for this new approach among German clients.”

Shambroom becomes CMO at Deputy
Deputy, a workforce management software company, has hired Jennifer Shambroom as chief marketing officer, expanding its global team to San Francisco. She will lead the global marketing teams across Sydney, London and Atlanta and contribute to the company’s efforts of building out a new office and expanding the team based in San Francisco.

As the CMO of YouAppi, the company was named to Deloitte’s 15th Fastest Growing Company in Bay Area, grew revenue over 16,000 percent, and Shambroom was responsible for leading global teams across 15 offices worldwide while driving key marketing strategies. Shambroom also authored her first book, The Everything Guide to Mobile Apps, the ‘first-ever’ resource on how to market mobile applications.

“I am excited to welcome Jennifer to the team and to have her on board for this next part of Deputy’s journey,” said Steven Power, global president at Deputy. “Her experience leading teams across high-growth tech companies like Lookout, Motricity, Payfone, Crittercism and YouAppi put her in great stead to build a superior global marketing team at Deputy.”

Parsec appoints Heimlich as president
Mobile ad network Parsec Media has hired Adam Heimlich as president. In this newly created role, he will focus on new revenue streams and products for the firm and will report to Parsec Media CEO Marc Guldimann.

Heimlich led search marketing at Razorfish, and later at Horizon Media, he founded HX, the first tech and fee-transparent trading desk within a major TV agency. In his most recent role, SVP of media at Gale Partners, Heimlich helped brand advertisers adopt new advertising technologies and data-driven strategies.

“I am excited to join the team at Parsec,” said Heimlich. “What inspires me most is the company’s commitment to scientific-level accountability and transparency, which can be seen in their cost-per-second metric. I have long championed these qualities, because brands need to make decisions based on actual evidence –whether it’s about performance of an ad or performance of a partner.”

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Criteo, the open internet advertising platform, has released its State of Ad Tech 2019 report, which analyzes consumer data to help marketers convert online traffic to purchases.  Criteo interviewed 901 direct response marketers in partnership with Euromonitor International for the report.

Criteo asked marketers which channels claimed priority of their ad budgets and yielded the best results, with answers varying from paid display and social media marketing to content and SEO. The dispersion of results highlighted how fragmented ad budgets have become, the report notes, transitioning into the new year.

“Marketers understand that conversion can happen at any point in the shopper journey,” said Jaysen Gillespie, vice president, head of analytics and insights for Criteo. “We found that fragmented data, tech giants, and personalization are all top-of-mind for marketers going into 2019.”

Criteo’s report found that the most effective ad tactics from 2018 were social media marketing (53 per cent); paid display advertising (43 per cent); email marketing (41 per cent); and SEO (38 per cent).

40 per cent of marketers surveyed admitted to struggling to “find data on the online/offline shopper connection”, resulting in a lesser understanding of audience desires and lower conversion metrics. Another variable outlined by Criteo is the challenge to personalize campaigns and keep consumers engaged. 

According to the report: “Reengagement is a critical part of the consumer purchase journey, particularly as the impact of brand loyalty increases. The report revealed that existing retailer customers spend more on average than new shoppers (51 per cent) and shopping app customers have high loyalty tendencies (41 per cent). Compelling discounts, personalization, innovative ad formats and engaging designs were reported to be three of the most successful tactics for reengagement campaigns.”

You can read the complete State of Ad Tech 2019  here.

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