The mobile and digital marketing industry is ever-changing, and that applies to the people as much as the technology. Movers & Shakers is our monthly round-up of the hottest hires in the industry…
Kern to head up new business in EMEA at Snap
Surekha Kern has joined Snap Inc in a newly-created role, as Head of New Business EMEA. She will be based in London, reporting to Sam Bevan, Director of Emerging EMEA. She comes with many years’ global ad sales experience, most recently as Head of New Business EMEA for Unidays. Prior to this, she had roles at MTV, Sunrise Television, and spent eight years in senior global brand partnerships roles with Discovery.
Managing a team across the EMEA region, Kern will focus on activating Snap’s next generation of partners for Snapchat, and building on recent steep revenue growth.
Sam Bevan, Director of Emerging EMEA at Snap, said: “We are delighted to welcome Surekha to the Snap family. The launch of our New Business team will enable us to better scale and support the onboarding of new partners across the region. Surekha's depth of knowledge of the commerce landscape will be invaluable as we continue to build out products and solutions that drive real business results.”
Rose takes up EMEA marketing leadership role at Celebrity Cruises
Lisa Rose has been appointed Director of Marketing for the EMEA region of luxury travel company, Celebrity Cruises. She will oversee all aspects of brand, marketing and PR for Celebrity Cruises’ EMEA region, reporting to VP & Managing Director, EMEA, Jo Rzymowska.
Rose joins from Expedia Group, where she served as Senior Director, Expedia Brand Strategy and before that Senior Director of both Marketing & Propositions and Global Loyalty for Hotels.com. She has led teams across a range of marketing disciplines, including SEO, Customer Insights, Mobile Marketing and Brand Strategy, and has been instrumental in defining compelling propositions to drive long-term customer engagement.
A commercially astute marketing leader, with over 10 years’ experience in the travel industry, she brings a combination of strategic thinking and the ability to drive and deliver results across teams as well as a wealth of experience in defining brand priorities and delivering successful campaigns.
She said: “I’m ecstatic to be joining this forward-thinking luxury holiday brand at a pivotal time for the travel industry. As a marketer, working with a brand that is celebrated for delivering outstanding luxury experiences is an exciting premise. As consumer demand returns, along with significant brand investment into new ships to attract new types of consumers to cruising, the potential for growth is hugely exciting.”
Shelton Rose to lead PwC UK’s TMT division
PwC UK has appointed Mary Shelton Rose as its TMT (Technology, Media and Telecom) Leader. Previously based in the US, she has worked at PwC for over 30 years, serving as a Global Client Partner for some of the firm's largest clients across sectors including technology, consumer markets, entertainment and media, and telecommunications.
She has held a number of leadership roles across the PwC Global Network including US Brexit Response Leader and Leader of the Trust Leadership Institute, a forum bringing together business executives across industries to determine ways in which their companies can earn trust and deliver sustainable outcomes to impact business and society. She was also Executive Director of PwC’s Exchange Program ,where clients engage with industry leaders on business issues while building peer connections.
She said: “I’m delighted and very excited to be joining PwC UK as TMT Leader and look forward to building on the great work the team has been doing to support our clients across the industry, collaboratively shaping innovative solutions to address their most pressing issues.
“The TMT industry in the UK is significant and I am joining the team at a very exciting time across all the sectors, with high interest in the metaverse, continued rollout of 5G and fast broadband infrastructure, as well as an active deals market. I look forward to working with our clients to navigate their journey through the burgeoning industry.”
Barclay to head up EMEA sales at Hootsuite
Hootsuite has hired Mike Barclay as its VP of Sales in the EMEA region, following its new office reopening in London and the acquisition of Sparkcentral, a social customer care platform developed in Belgium. Barclay joins Hootsuite from Affise, a performance marketing software company, where he was VP Global Sales.
Barclay brings more than two decades of leadership and sales experience to Hootsuite, with nearly 25 years spent leading teams across multiple industries including technology and retail. He brings proven expertise in delivering revenue growth and exceeding bottom-line objectives across high-growth and scale-up organisations.
He said: “I doubt that any person, let alone brand, would deny the power and diversification of social media to connect with their audience. Hootsuite has led the way in enabling marketers to harness social platforms to expedite growth, and I could not be more delighted to join the organisation and continue driving this forward in the EMEA region. We have a big job ahead of us to continue to impress our customers, while dynamically changing the world. I will be laser focused on fuelling our trajectory by empowering super talented, value-driven teams to do what they do best.”
Growth brief for Fitzpatrick at Mediacom
MediaCom UK has appointed Susana Tsui Fitzpatrick as Chief Growth Officer, leading new business growth for the agency following the successful pitches for Sky’s digital business, Klarna, Shark Ninja and Moda Furnishings’ digital business.
Fitzpatrick boasts over 20 years’ media experience through an array of leadership roles in agency, eCommerce start-ups and publishing; most recently as President of Southeast Asia for Tatler Asia, where she transformed the publishing business and launched eCommerce platforms TheTatlerBar.com and Tatler Unlisted.
Prior to this, she was the CEO of Media for The Parent Inc, Southeast Asia’s largest parenting community, the Regional COO at OgilvyOne, CEO at PHD Asia Pacific and Group CEO at Dentsu China. She has worked on global brands such as IBM, Diageo, LVMH, HSBC, Unilever and Volkswagen. Her experience spans across multiple disciplines, specialising in digital transformation projects.
Fitzpatrick will report directly into Kate Rowlinson, UK CEO at MediaCom and work closely with the new business and marketing teams, executive leadership team and Managing Partner & Head of Business Development, James Hyams.
“We’re seeing good growth at MediaCom already this year and Susana will help to supercharge this,” said Kate Rowlinson, UK CEO at MediaCom UK. “She has a passion for developing talent and winning clients – both of which chime perfectly with our ‘People first, better results’ mantra. Her experience and expertise put us in a great position to continue our successful 2022 and beyond.”
Wavemaker promotes two
Wavemaker has promoted Kelly Parker to UK Chief Executive and Katie Lee to Chief Operating Officer to replace UK CEO Paul Hutchison, who is moving to Australia to take on a new role outside the group. During his time at Wavemaker, he successfully navigated the business through the Maxus/MEC merger, championed DE&I planning as an opt out versus an opt in approach and redefined the agency’s media partner collaboration.
Parker moves into the post as CEO in June from her previous position as UK Chief Operating Officer, reporting into EMEA CEO Ruth Stubbs. Lee will move up from Wavemaker’s UK Chief Growth Officer to Chief Operating Officer.
“I’m really proud to see two brilliant women taking the lead in our biggest EMEA market,” said Wavemaker EMEA CEO, Ruth Stubbs. “The combined skillsets of Kelly and Katie provide Wavemaker with something that is positively provocative and differentiating. I look forward to seeing the Kelly-Katie duo propel Wavemaker UK into a new era of growth for the agency, our clients and people.”
O’Sullivan heads to Mediacom North after 12 years at McCann
Jenny O’Sullivan has joined the MediaCom North Group as Digital Client Partner. She joins after a 12-year career at McCann, where she spent the last six years as Head of Digital Media at McCann Manchester and ran the digital media account for Aldi. She was previously eCommerce manager at Fragrance Direct.
O’Sullivan will be a key stakeholder on the MediaCom Manchester Senior Leadership Team, supporting Managing Director Nicola Marsh as she broadens her remit as head of the UK Google Practice. She will be responsible for refining and driving forward client digital strategies, working directly with MediaCom Manchester’s planning and management teams to engender holistic, cutting-edge digital strategies and further integrate digital channels with above-the-line for a more cohesive approach.
She said: “MediaCom Manchester is moving at pace – and is undoubtedly a sector leading digital-first agency, evidenced by its recent wins and trajectory of growth. It has an enviable client list of clients who are also leading in their market sectors, be that retail, automotive or entertainment.
“Having worked in an integrated creative agency, and client-side, I like to think I bring a broad perspective to how we support clients in reaching their goals through the latest media and digital routes to market and MediaCom’s ethos of helping clients to see the bigger picture very much appealed to me. I’m looking forward to using this breadth of experience and my skills that span all digital paid channels to work with the agency’s area specialists.”
mSix&Partners promotes Quirk and Bickle
mSix&Partners, a joint venture between The&Partnership and GroupM, has announced the promotion of Aaron Quirk to EMEA CEO and Victoria Bickle to the new role of UK Managing Director.
Quirk takes responsibility for leading and growing all EMEA agency operations, driving growth across 22 markets, whilst Bickle will be accountable for driving ongoing growth and delivering the UK market strategy for the next phase of development in mSix&Partners’ largest market.
With over 26 years' experience in the industry, across both agency and media owner side, Quirk was previously Worldwide Chief Client Officer at mSix&Partners. He was instrumental in driving the agency’s 31 per cent year-on-year growth and led the most recent new multi-market client wins, including Discovery, Karo Pharma, Jabra, CBRE and SC Johnson. Prior to mSix&Partners, Quirk was WPP Global Leader for HSBC.
With over 20 years’ industry experience, Bickle has been promoted from UK Chief Client Officer at mSix&Partners to UK Managing Director. In her previous role at the agency, she was responsible for all UK client relationships, maintaining the agency’s high client retention rates and championing new ways of working. She led the successful Smart Energy GB pitch at the end of 2021. Prior to mSix&Partners, Bickle was Managing Partner at UM, where she led the agency’s largest account, Johnson & Johnson and was responsible for managing the agency wide client delivery strategies, implementing new initiatives and best practice.
“With these appointments, mSix&Partners can accelerate our plans for growth across the region,” said Global CEO, Speaking of the appointments, Jack Swayne. “Both Aaron and Victoria have already made a big impact in the agency and I’m incredibly pleased to see them step up into these new roles. We’re building on momentum through our unique partnership model, which will see us go further and faster in delivering great work for clients and a strong culture for our people.”
Twilio welcomes Joyce Kim as Chief Marketing Officer
Twilio has appointed Joyce Kim as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), reporting to President of Revenue, Elena Donio. As CMO, Kim will lead global marketing as the company executes its vision of becoming the leader in the emerging customer engagement category.
She joins Twilio from Genesys, where she also served as CMO, and was responsible for driving market expansion and enterprise revenue growth. Prior to Genesys, Kim was Chief Digital & Marketing Officer for Arm, where she led the enterprise-wide digital transformation and global marketing strategy with one of the largest developer ecosystems in the world. She also serves as a member of the board of directors and the audit committee at Quicklogic corporation (QUIK), the nonprofit Bring Me A Book, and is a member of the Fast Company Executive Board.
“It’s a crucial time for Twilio as we look to scale and embrace the unique opportunity to define a new category in technology,” said Elena Donio, President of Revenue at Twilio. “With decades of experience across SaaS product positioning, demand generation and large scale developer community engagement, Joyce’s expertise directly lends itself to leading Twilio’s growing, global marketing organization. Joyce brings a great energy to Twilio, and I can’t wait to see what she builds.”
Criteo hires Orr to lead retail media business
Criteo has hired Jill Orr to lead the company’s growing retail media business in the EMEA region. Orr is an experienced leader with a proven track record in retail and technology, having held several executive positions, including Chief Operating Officer at Eyeota and EVP International at Triad Retail Media, among others.
Retail media is a significant driver of Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform strategy, which is the broader ability to connect marketers and media owners to monetize anywhere where consumers spend their time. With retail media, retailers create personalised advertising experiences within their properties, effectively making them media owners. By leveraging their own first-party data retailers can create shoppable moments for brands and deliver tangible commerce outcomes.
As Managing Director, Retail Media EMEA, Orr will be responsible for the expansion of Criteo's retail media business in the region, driving adoption among leading retailers, agencies and brands and continuing to build out retail-focused services and solutions. The role will involve helping clients to unlock first-party based commerce media opportunities so they can acquire and retain consumers even outside their own properties.
She said: “Criteo is perfectly positioned to drive the commerce media opportunity leveraging the potential of its adaptable technology and capitalising on its leading position in retail media. I’m excited to help our clients design meaningful and impactful outcomes for their businesses and their customers”
Bastian takes up CMO role at Teads
Teads has appointed Natalie Bastian as its Chief Marketing Officer, to lead the company’s worldwide marketing team and strengthen its position as a global technology business. Based in Teads’ New York office, Bastian will be responsible for Teads’ global marketing strategy and enabling growth across Teads’ portfolio, including new omnichannel products, such as its recently-launched CTV offering.
Bastian joins Teads with a wealth of experience in applying data-driven strategies to build brand awareness and adoption to emerging platforms across streaming TV in the US. She was most recently at Tubi, FOX Corporation's free ad-supported streaming service, where she served as SVP, Head of Marketing, leading marketing efforts spanning across B2C and B2B channels. Prior to this, she was Head of Sales Marketing at Roku where she spearheaded positioning strategy across all client segments and touchpoints, and was instrumental in the organization doubling in size and scope.
She said: “Teads’ mission to support quality journalism and enable brands to advertise responsibly is what first attracted me to the company. In speaking with the team, what excites me is the focus on innovation as a company that has the tech, talent and drive to develop an elevated and unique industry offering. I look forward to partnering with the team to bolster Teads’ mission to advertisers and their agencies as well as publishers around the world.”
Hallam adds two to Experience team
Hallam has expanded its Experience team, with the addition of UX Designer, Ilse Normington, and Creative Copywriter, Fraser Wanless.
Over a 25-year copywriting career, Wanless has created compelling content for clients including many national and international brands across print, radio, TV, outdoor and digital.
Normington specialises in UX, with in-house experience across a range of sectors including retail, banking, fashion and eCommerce. Her career initially began as an analyst working on a variety of aspects from customer experience and behaviour to web analytics.
“Ilse and Fraser bring a variety of experience that broadens Hallam's offer but, more importantly, they are both exceptionally talented and likeable individuals,” said
Kier Humphreys, Experience Director at Hallam. “They have immediately settled into the team, are a hit with our clients and haven't paid me a thing to say this.”
Bushey to head up EMEA sales at Merkle
Merkle has hired Robert Bushey as EMEA Chief Sales Officer. In his new role, Bushey will help brands work across the required Merkle capabilities and services to support their customer experience transformation, bringing in consultants from the Strategy & Transformation team to help clients navigate the complex data and tech decisions that support success locally, regionally and globally.
He will lead the team responsible for growing EMEA revenues across all markets and capabilities, as well as devising and executing the growth strategy for the region. This includes building alliance partnerships; generating new business; driving new opportunities with existing clients; and promoting collaboration between Dentsu’s Media and Creative Services.
Bushey, who spent 11 years as a Managing Director and Partner at Accenture, joins with over 30 years’ experience in client-centric consulting and senior leadership roles.
Margaret Wagner, president of Merkle EMEA said: “Robert’s passion for establishing longer term, outcome-based relationships will help brands align around the right the metrics and services to deliver the complex transformations required to be ready for the next evolution in customer expectation. I’m excited to welcome him to my EMEA executive team to help regional and global brands align around customer-focussed outcomes.”
Merkle has also Mark Atkinson to the position of UK Chief Sales Officer. Formerly the VP Adobe EMEA alliance and enterprise sales lead for Merkle, Atkinson will lead the UK sales team and manage Merkle’s UK alliance activities in his new role to support the business’ growth ambitions.
He moved to Merkle in 2021 from his previous role as UK Head of Platform and Specialist Sales at Adobe, bringing with him a powerful network and expertise across all of the major CX, content, commerce, B2B, and platform solutions. After more than seven years in software sales at Adobe, engaging with major brands across a range of industries, Atkinson formed part of the UK leadership team tasked with driving value from the specialist sales organisation and a strong focus on employee engagement, sales execution, and personal development.
LoopMe adds to APAC, US and UK teams
LoopMe has announced raft of new appointments. The APAC management team has added Tokyo-based Daisuke Shigeishi, Head of Strategic Partnerships APAC, who joins LoopMe following three years as a sales executive at AdColony; and Sydney-based James Symonds as Senior Sales Director ANZ, who brings more than eight years’ experience in media from companies such as Nova Entertainment to boost sales across the ANZ region. Singapore-based Akihito Morita, APAC Sales Director, formerly of Foursquare, will focus on growing LoopMe’s partnership with Dentsu in Singapore and Tokyo. Joining from Blis, Singapore-based Georgia Watson, Senior Sales Director, will be responsible for driving revenue across the SEA region.
In the US, LoopMe has appointed Joseph Farrell as VP for Central and West Sales, based in Chicago; and Dallas-based Brian Bell, SVP Mid Market Sales joining from Viant, with Farrell and Bell reporting to Tim Price, GM of North America.
In the UK, Charlotte Forsyth joins LoopMe as VP of People. Forsyth is based in London, reporting to Andrew Small, CFO.
“After stellar growth in 2021 we are incredibly excited to build out our international teams across Poland, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and North America,” said LoopMe CEO and Co-founder, Stephen Upstone. “Our worldwide agency and client relationships have never been better and now we are adding the resource levels required to deliver outstanding customer service alongside future growth.”
Einecke takes up CEO role at Eyeo
Eyeo has appointed Frank Einecke as CEO. Einecke will take over the role from Till Faida as he transitions to eyeo’s board later this year.
Formerly Managing Director of Global Marketing Partners at Google, Einecke brings extensive martech skills and decades of experience in leading, building and running international high-growth organizations to Eyeo. As CEO, he will continue on the path to scale the vision and organizational structure that Faida and Horstmann have built over the past years. Horstmann, COO and Managing Director, has been scaling eyeo since 2017. Her continued leadership together with Einecke will further advance eyeo’s mission of empowering a balanced and sustainable online value exchange.
Einecke said: “I’m excited to join Eyeo as CEO. I believe that eyeo’s vision and its opportunity for social and economic impact are extremely exciting and as I take over the baton from Till, my goal is to continue building on the foundation that Till and Jutta have already accomplished. I have humble respect for Till’s decision to hand over the leadership of Eyeo and I’m thankful for the trust given to me by him and the other shareholders,” says Einecke.
Other moves:
Journey Further has appointed Paul Norris as Head of Organic Strategy to drive the continued growth of its organic search offering. He joins the agency’s London office with the brief of leading organic strategy on key accounts, aligned with the agency’s vision of creating the performance brands of tomorrow. He will focus on integrating the agency’s specialisms in digital PR, technical SEO and content with its broader capabilities in strategy, insight and creative, to build a market-leading offering. He has over 12 years’ experience accelerating growth for the likes of NatWest, Sweaty Betty, Dior and Waterstones. Norris has worked at a number of agency groups including Jaywing, Epiphany, and most recently departs his role as Organic Media Director at twentysix.
Ad platform Adform has appointed John Piccone as Regional President, US. He brings to the role almost three decades of experience formulating commercial strategy and operational structure to maximize revenue through media, technology and advertising services in the US and Europe. Prior to joining Adform, Piccone served as president of QTT, a patented advertising technology. He has also worked in a variety of additional executive leadership roles for companies including Simulmedia, Innovid, HealthiNation, and 24/7 Real Media, now trading as Xaxis.
Redmill Solutions, which provides media planning and data management solutions, has appointed Jay Stevens as CEO. He joins Redmill after serving as President of the media management platform, Hudson MX. Prior to Hudson MX, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at Adform, where he was responsible for worldwide revenue and managed a globally diverse team with commercial operations in 18 countries around the world. Previously, Stevens served as General Manager, International at Rubicon Project, where he built and led a team of 120 staff in 10 offices on 5 continents, taking revenue from zero to $125M during his tenure.
Livestreaming commerce platform Firework has hired Shivkumar Krishnan as Vice President of Engineering. Krishnan comes to Firework from Gap, where he served as Global Head of Engineering for Stores Technology, responsible for engineering the transaction processing systems that represented over 70 per cent of global revenue for Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta. In his role at Gap, he led the modernization of the retailer’s in-store legacy technologies to state-of-the-art native mobile and cloud technologies, and later led all aspects of design, assortment, franchises, and the Gap Digital Lab innovation team.
Hype Partners has appointed Enara Nazarova as VP of Metaverse (VPM) to lead its newly-launched Metaverse Studio. The Studio will help heritage and emerging brands to build resilient communities and launch successful metaverse-native projects. Nazarova joins Hype with a multidisciplinary background leading marketing initiatives across fashion, media and education. Since 2016 she has been focused on fusing culture with emerging technology and advocating for diverse talent representation in tech. As VPM, she will head the company's Metaverse partnerships and work to develop a suite of next-generation digital experiences.
Live selling firm CommentSold has appointed Steven Power as President. This is a new role that will build out CommentSold’s executive team, bringing extensive operational leadership experience. Power has been working with CommentSold for the last seven months as a Board Member and most recently as an Advisor to the CEO. He brings more than 20 years’ experience leading and building numerous high profile, fast growing tech companies. He will be responsible for Financial, Commercial, Legal, Customer Experience, Operations and Human Resources functions within CommentSold.
Digital experience consultancy Bounteous has appointed Jon Reily to lead its Commerce thought leadership and strategy. A successful industry futurist and trend forecaster, Reily is a 25-year commerce veteran who founded and sold two successful companies in the first dotcom boom of the 1990s. Before joining Bounteous, he held senior executive roles at Dentsu and Publicis, where he advised Fortune 500 companies and top global retailers on how best to transform themselves digitally to stay competitive in an increasingly technology-focused world. Previously, Reily was a senior leader at Amazon.com, where he re-invented how Amazon sold and marketed its first-party manufactured devices, such as Kindle Fire and FireTV, and helped create a multi-billion dollar business division within Amazon.
AdTonos, which monetizes gaming, podcast, audiobook, music and radio streams for over 200 recognised publishers across the UK, EU, LATAM and the US, has appointed Tony Moustakelis to support growing demand in the US. He will be responsible for expanding AdTonos’ client base and building awareness of its cutting-edge ad tech solutions in the US market. The appointment coincides with the opening of AdTonos’ first office in the US located in Manhattan, New York City, in the iconic World Trade Center One building.
OpenWeb has hired Mark Howard as its Chief Business Officer. Howard comes to OpenWeb with more than two decades of media industry experience, including his recent role as Chief Advertising and Partnerships Officer at Penske Media; a 17 year tenure at Forbes where he rose to Chief Revenue Officer, as well as his eight years of work on the IAB Board of Directors. In his new role, he will work closely with OpenWeb’s supply and demand sales teams, leveraging his learnings working for publishers and implementing first-party data strategies and apply it at scale to OpenWeb’s more than 1,000 premium publisher partners.
Link Agency, a TikTok brand factory, is amping up creative strategy with the appointment of Dustin Poteet as is new Chief Creative Officer (CCO). Poteet brings over 10 years’ experience working with brands in the entertainment industry and will integrate a full-funnel approach to TikTok marketing and LINK Agency campaigns on the platform. He joined LINK Agency at the beginning of 2022 as Creative Director and is now newly appointed as CCO. He worked previously as VP of Content for Comedy.com and Creative Director of IMGN Media, a major agency acquired by Warner for $100M. In addition to VP and consulting roles, Poteet has more than a decade of experience in campaign production and eight years in digital marketing and media from his independent company, Poteet Films.
Together Labs has appointed Harman Singh as Chief Financial Officer and Jed Ritchey as General Counsel. Singh has worked with influential gaming and mobile brands as Vice President at Glu Mobile and App Annie (now data.ai) as well as other prominent tech companies including Model N and Couchbase. Ritchey joins Together Labs from Kountable, having spent his career building and leading legal teams at tech companies Unity and Zynga, among other successful startups, Ritchey is well-positioned to invest his strategic counsel to maintain the integrity of the Together Labs platforms and brands as General Counsel.
Pros
Pros, which provides SaaS solutions optimizing shopping and selling experiences, has hired Grad Conn as its Chief Marketing Officer, reporting directly to Andres Reiner, PROS CEO. Conn will be responsible for driving global marketing strategy, with a focus on customer experience and brand building to extend PROS market leadership and fuel its corporate growth trajectory. Conn comes to PROS from Sprinklr, where he served as the Chief Experience and Marketing Officer. In this role, he led the establishment of the marketing function, scaled it with the business, and increased demand generation through effective digital, social and other corporate marketing initiatives.
Infinite Arcade, a blockchain platform built to launch the mobile games industry into the metaverse, has appointed Andrew Dubatowka as Core Contributor, Product Marketing. He joins from Visa, where he spent four years as Senior Director, Global Marketing. Dubatowka’s 15-year marketing track record encompasses senior roles at IPG Mediabrands, and AdColony, which was acquired by Digital Turbine for $400 million. He has worked with leading brands and clients such as Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Pandora, Charles Schwab, and Wells Fargo.
