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…

Snap appoints Bird as Senior Director of Marketing for EMEA

Snap Inc, has appointed Kate Bird as its new Senior Director of Marketing for EMEA. She joins from Condé Nast, where she has held the position of Global VP of Consumer Revenue since 2019, responsible for the revenue growth of Condé Nast’s global brands and subscription models, including Vogue and GQ, in over 30 markets around the world. 

Reporting to Doug Frisbie, Snap’s Global VP of Global Business Marketing, Bird will lead the EMEA Marketing team, which aims to educate advertisers, agencies, and small businesses across the region about how they can use Snap’s advertising and augmented reality formats to reach Snapchats community of 750m people and achieve meaningful business results. 

Prior to working at Conde Nast, Bird was CMO and GM for the Sun. She also held a number of marketing roles at News UK, with The Times and The Wall Street Journal. She received a commendation from Scotland Yard for her contribution to counter terrorism, following the success of the ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ brand campaign in 2017.

Ronan Harrris, Snap’s EMEA President said: “We are thrilled to welcome Kate to Snap. She has incredible experience and is known throughout the industry for delivering impactful marketing that drives real results. Crucially, she’s also known for embodying Snap’s values of being kind, smart and creative. I can’t wait to see what Kate and the team accomplish as we embark on our next phase of growth. “

WeAre8 makes two senior hires
Purpose-driven social media app, WeAre8, has appointed of Donna McCallum as Director of Collaborate and Katie Lewis as the UK Marketing Director. These strategic hires will allow the company to further increase its brand presence in the United Kingdom, and offer brand partners an expanded suite of services to make a positive impact in the world through their marketing.  

McCallum brings over 25 years of experience in the media industry, having spent the past 10 years leading the commercial partnerships team at Global, where she was responsible for spearheading multi-platform deals with the likes of eBay, Sky and Boots at the media and entertainment group.

In her new position, she will lead the company’s efforts to establish purposeful partnerships that create a deeper connection between brands and their audiences, as well as develop innovative creative solutions that extend beyond WeAre8’s opt-in video advertising, and enable brands to make a tangible impact with their marketing investment.  

She said: “What excited me about WeAre8, is the idea that the advertising industry can have a significant positive impact on the world we live in. The proposition of a social media platform for good resonated with me, especially as a mother who wants her daughter to grow up having a positive social experience. WeAre8 provides the perfect solution for brands looking to do better and make a meaningful impact.”

Lewis joins WeAre8 from her previous role heading up the UK & Europe operations for global digital entertainment platform Cameo, where she helped grow the business to exceed a $1bn valuation. As UK Marketing Director, she will be responsible for driving all elements of the marketing funnel, including marketing and impact partnerships, advertising, PR, creator relations and content collaboration. She will report to global CMO, Luke Robinson.

She said: “WeAre8 is a brand that operates in a really interesting space, straddling the worlds of social media and premium digital advertising. It’s unlike anything in the market at the moment, and its commitment to creating authentic and meaningful connections between citizens and creators, as well as brands, is remarkable. I am excited to lead the marketing team and help fulfil WeAre8’s ambitions to be the social platform that can change the world, and deliver meaningful experiences for WeAre8’s citizens.”

Rosier joins Homethings as Head of Brand
Sustainable home care challenger brand, Homethings, has appointed eco-brand guru, Pete Rosier, to join its team as Head of Brand. He joins following his role as Ecover + Method European Creative and Content Lead, where he worked for 15 years.

Rosier will join forces with the founders of Homethings – Tim Keaveney, Matt Aubrey and their team – to further develop their challenger brand positioning and marketing strategy, as they move into the next stage of growth. This will include unlocking some exciting new brand partnerships, as well as launching a series of limited editions and campaigns in 2023/24.

Rosier began his career at Ecover in 2008 and quickly progressed to the roles of UK Brand Manager and European Digital Lead. In 2012, Ecover acquired San Francisco cleaning challenger, Brand Method, which added to Rosier’s creative brand marketing remit across Europe. In 2017 SC Johnson acquired both brands.

Roisier said: “14+ years at Ecover + Method – it’s a long time and a huge part of my life. I’m incredibly proud and grateful for the work I did with these brands, but deep down I knew I had unfinished business. The cleaning industry is a huge oxymoron, with many brands preaching eco-credentials that simply don’t stack up within a system resting on its laurels. Its a dirty industry which needs cleaning up. I want to help inspire change and call out complacency. So when Homethings slid into my DMs I knew what to do. Re-use rather than just recycle is the future of sustainable home care and these guys are leading the charge.”

VCCP US hires its first Chief Creative Officer
Creative agency, VCCP, has hired Jed Grossman as its first-ever Chief Creative Officer in the US. The appointment comes hot on the heels of VCCP NY merging with its San Francisco-based creative agency Muhtayzik Hoffer (M/H) to create one entity earlier this year. Reporting to Global Chief Creative Officer Darren Bailes, Grossman will be the architect of the creative vision for VCCP US, driving the agency’s development and growth in the North American marketplace.

“VCCP US has seen solid momentum, bringing in clients including Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Nutribullet, and Native and welcoming a new CFO, Janisse Wong,” said Brett Edgar, CEO at VCCP US. “Amidst that, a high-level creative perspective to unite both offices has remained the missing piece of the puzzle. Now, with the merger of VCCP NY and M/H complete and Jed coming on board, we have the leadership in place to propel the agency to new heights. He has a challenger spirit that aligns with our values, and I look forward to seeing his impact on our business.”

Grossman most recently served as Executive Creative Director at Arts & Letters, where he managed a cross-agency team and developed its overall creative vision. During his five-year tenure, the agency grew from 18 people to more than 60, attracting clients including Google, ESPN, and Titos Vodka.

Prior to that, Grossman played an instrumental role in the transformation of B-Reel. He spent the bulk of his career at Mother New York, where he began as Art Director in 2008 before transcending to the position of Creative Director over his eight-year tenure. His career began at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, contributing to the agency getting named Agency of the Year and Agency of the Decade by Ad Age.

He said: “VCCP US embraces bravery and openness in its approach to creativity, and those values ultimately drew me toward the agency. I look forward to partnering with leadership to inspire this team of dreamers toward developing work with our clients that transcends traditional advertising.”

EssenceMediacom UK expands senior leadership team
EssenceMediacom UK is expanding its senior leadership team (SLT) to give added weight to client care and specialist services. Joining the SLT will be the current Business Group Heads – Sonya Arthur, Becca Marshall and Nigel Robinson – who will all take on the role of Client President. They will be responsible for driving forward EssenceMediacom’s client relationships and leading the strategy to deliver clients’ growth objectives through its new capabilities and services.

Catherine Pronzato, meanwhile, takes on the role of MD, Client Solutions. She will be responsible for the deployment of the new agency operating model across client teams to ensure they are empowered to deliver breakthrough work. They will report jointly to Chief Client Officer Claudine Collins and the recently announced Chief Operating Officer, Satin Reid.  

Another key change will be the elevation of Creative Futures, Analytics & Insight and Data & Technology leaders to the senior leadership group. Dan Wood will take on the role of Managing Director, Creative Futures, the content division built to help clients navigate and leverage the explosion in opportunities in the burgeoning new communications economy, both within and beyond advertising.

Jane Christian will take on the role of Managing Director, Analytics & Insight. Her focus will be to accelerate the impact of analytics across every part of the organisation and drive breakthrough insights for clients. And Owain Wilson, the current Head of Data & Technology, will also join the new SLT, representing a critical growth area for the business.

Finally, Nicola Marsh, Managing Director for EssenceMediacom North, will sit alongside Paul Cooper, EssenceMediacom North Chief Operating Officer, on the SLT to ensure continued close collaboration between all parts of the UK network.

“We’ve revamped our structure to ensure our clients get the best possible care from our teams,” said Kate Rowlinson, UK CEO EssenceMediacom. “We want to build a world-class, client-centric organisation and to ensure we provide access to the best talent and specialist services and products that deliver business growth for our clients. Expanding our leadership group to reflect the full range of services we offer as EssenceMediacom will allow us to deliver on that promise.

Separately, EssenceMediacomX has appointed Sue Unerman as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO). The appointment will see Unerman bring her experience in transformation to the top leadership team at EssenceMediacomX, drawing from her wealth of industry knowledge to develop new ways to drive breakthrough innovation for clients by combining creativity and data-driven excellence. She will continue in a dual role as Global Head of Relevance, Creative Futures at EssenceMediacom.

She joins EssenceMediacomX from MediaCom, where she has held several senior leadership positions, including six years as CTO and 11 years as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). This appointment represents her first move to another business in over two decades. Widely recognised as an industry pioneer, she has won numerous business and marketing awards, including Ten Most Extraordinary Business Women of 2022 and Top 100 Women Executives, and been honoured with a lifelong IPA fellowship. She is also an author and has written several best-selling books on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and marketing in the age of complexity.

She said: “The merger of Essence and MediaCom disrupted the old models across media, creative, innovation and analytics, making us a true powerhouse in this space. I’m thrilled to join a team that is spearheading these developments at EssenceMediacomX, working with brilliant colleagues to shape the future of advertising and find new ways to deliver breakthroughs for our clients.”

Lublow takes up Product & Technology Role at Mapp
Insight-led customer experience firm, Mapp, has appointed Eric Lubow to the role of Chief Product & Technology Officer. In this role, he will lead all aspects of Mapp Cloud’s technologies, leveraging more than 20 years of executive engineering and technology leadership martech.

Lublow most recently served as the VP of Engineering for Thrasio, the fast-growing acquirer of Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) businesses. Prior to that, he served as CTO/Co-founder at leading digital care and content data technology companies, including HealthHive, Mymee, and SimpleReach. 

In his new role, Eric will spearhead Mapps engineering and product teams, fostering innovation and working on developing cutting-edge features, but will most importantly help facilitate Mapp into becoming a leading technology driven martech platform in its space. Mapp’s current clients include Ella’s Kitchen, Expert, Freesat, West Ham United F.C., MyToys, Pepsico, and The Entertainer.

With customer acquisition and retention becoming more complex to tackle for consumer brands, the need for the right solutions and strategies has never been more crucial. Leveraging insight-led technologies, the company aims to empower its clients with the necessary tools to embrace the evolving consumer landscape effectively and see greater value in their tech, while having a bigger impact on their consumers. The appointment of a new CPTO marks a significant milestone in the companys journey and reaffirms its dedication to staying at the forefront of the marketing technology landscape.

“We’re extremely excited to welcome Eric to Mapp and look forward to his leadership as we accelerate our tech expansion and provide solutions that solve common customer experience challenges,” said Mapp CEO, Steve Warren. Eric’s experience in optimizing and scaling technology brings a strong value to our organization, particularly as our industry undergoes some fundamental shifts and value-driven technology is becoming key. This is crucial to helping brands generate actionable insights for driving meaningful change in the customer experience field.” 

Iris appoints Joins MDs
Creative innovation network, Iris, has today announced new appointments to its London leadership with the hire of Chris Grimwood and the promotion of Elisha Pearce to joint Managing Directors of Iris London. Together they assume joint responsibility for Iris division of consumer brands and report directly to London CEO, Claire Humphris.

As well as overseeing the agency’s client base, they will be responsible for strengthening Iris’s social capabilities with the launch of a new ‘social-first’ proposition designed to plug the gap between social specialists and traditional agency models. The ‘Iris Inc’ proposition – which stands for Igniting New Creators’ – will combine the agency’s in-house talent with a global network of creators to harness the power of the creator economy for clients, and will sit at the forefront of Iris’s offering

Grimwood rejoins the agency from Social Chain and Brave Bison, where he was VP of Client Services and MD respectively, bringing with him a wealth of experience working with global brands including Unilever, Xbox, and Sony. He began his career at Iris, holding Account Director and Business Director roles and working with brands such as Sony and Samsung. At Brave Bison, he was responsible for building out its social and influencer offering ahead of the acquisition of Social Chain in 2023. As part of that acquisition he moved to Social Chain as Vice President, overseeing delivery across the accounts team, predominantly working on KFC and General Mills.

Pearce moves from her role as Managing Partner, after 16 years working across a broad spectrum of clients, including Starbucks, ABRDN and Pizza Hut. Her strength in creating effective brand-led comms has resulted in award-winning work, including ‘What’s your name’ for Starbucks, which won the Channel 4 diversity in advertising award and subsequently 21 awards for the agency, including a Cannes Gold Lion.

“Iris has never been able to be put neatly in one box or another. Our best work has always been culturally astute and it has never really felt like traditional advertising,” said Humphris. “With the addition of new talent like Chris and the promotion of Elisha, as well as other burgeoning talent we have in our creator community, we will be able to create even more content and experiences that work with and build communities for our clients around culture and passions”.

Azerion hires three
Digital entertainment and media platform, Azerion, has announced three new hires to its team in London. Lucy Whichello joins as Account Director, Marco Evans as Digital Account Manager, and Sophie Marsh-Baldry as Programmatic Account Manager.

Whichello will be responsible for prospecting and maintaining clients at Mindshare and EssenceMediacom, both for the UK market and internationally. She will also lead on Azerion’s proposition after a series of recent acquisitions and mergers. She joins the company from TripleLift where she worked as Sales Manager. 

Marsh-Baldry ran the programmatic campaign set up and managed the programmatic delivery for a number of clients at Unruly. She will now be responsible for running programmatic campaigns for a range of high-profile clients in the UK market for Azerion, as well as liaising with internal teams to ensure a smooth delivery and optimised performance.

Joining the company from Future Publishing, Evans will manage the prospecting of new clients, as well as managing the relationships with mSix and EssenceMediaCom in the UK and internationally. He will also be in charge of selling and promoting the company’s offering, and upselling on current campaigns.

“Lucy, Sophie, and Marco are all experts in their field and will be an invaluable addition to the Azerion team,” said Anna Forbes, UK Country Director at Azerion. “By covering clientele both in the UK and internationally, we are able to expand our international offering and make the London office a true global hub for Azerion and our client partners. We are really pleased to welcome these three new joiners as we continue to grow our team, our offering, and the services we provide.”

Harwood to Performance Director at Billion Dollar Boy
Influencer marketing agency, Billion Dollar Boy (BDB), has hired Simon Harwood as Global Performance Director. The newly-created role is designed to facilitate even closer working relationships between key functions of the business, including the data, strategy and paid media teams, to optimise initiatives, processes and outputs. Harwood will also be responsible for developing new models to measure and prove effectiveness across the marketing funnel, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the agency continues to deliver award-winning influencer marketing and advertising campaigns. He will also work closely with BDB’s clients and client services teams to plan, develop and launch new products.

He joins BDB from the7stars, the UKs biggest independent media agency, where he was Head of Strategy. His previous experience includes senior roles as Head of Creativity & Innovation and Head of Futures at PHD Media. He brings 20 years’ senior experience in the industry, guiding C-Suite marketers at a wide variety of clients including Warner Bros, Mondelez, Gousto, McCain and Expedia.

“We’re proud to welcome Simon to the agency as we look to continue scaling up the business in all our key regional markets,” said Ed East, Global CEO and Co-founder of Billion Dollar Boy. “Enhancing the data, strategy and paid media teams will be crucial to delivering advertising campaigns with proven effectiveness. Simon has the perfect skillset and deep industry experience to ensure we maintain our place ahead of the curve in an evolving advertising landscape. Investing in this new role demonstrates our commitment to our clients that their business success is our success.”

Vincelli to head up Enterprise Partnerships at Bidstack
In-game ad tech firm, Bidstack, has hired Chris Vincelli as VP of Enterprise Partnerships. He will work with existing gaming and programmatic advertising partners, while also building new relationships with vendors looking to licence Bidstack’s technology.

Prior to joining, Vincelli served as the Vice President of Publishing at Anzu, where he successfully led strategic initiatives and played a pivotal role in driving growth and innovation through strategic partnerships with leading games companies. With a decade of mobile ad industry experience under his belt, Vincelli has a proven track record of developing and implementing successful publishing strategies, forging partnerships and driving revenue growth, having also held roles at Vungle, Verizon Media and Yahoo.

“Were delighted to welcome Chris to the Bidstack team,” said Bidstack Founder and CEO, James Draper. “His deep understanding and passion for the games industry and expertise in publishing will prove invaluable as we continue to expand our commercial partnerships portfolio and ramp up our growth trajectory in the US market. By bringing Chris on board, Bidstack demonstrates its unwavering commitment to capitalising on the untapped potential within the in-game advertising market, further fuelling the companys impressive growth.”

Madhive hires Kaplan as Chief Revenue Officer
Madhive, the technology company engineered for modern TV advertising, has hired Jon Kaplan as Chief Revenue Officer. In this new position, Kaplan is responsible for accelerating the adoption of Madhive’s full-stack TV enterprise software, empowering TV buyers to capitalize on the streaming era with a programmatic solution.

Madhive was founded in 2016 initially as an enterprise solution for local broadcasters including Fox, Scripps, and TEGNA, enabling streaming TV offerings to their local advertisers with a focus on customized campaign planning, activation, optimization, and measurement. Kaplan will further expand Madhive’s advertising infrastructure’s adoption into national brands, DTC brands, and retail media networks looking to scale their streaming TV offerings.

He brings over 20 years’ industry expertise in building and scaling strategic sales teams across the digital advertising and technology sectors. Prior to joining Madhive, he served as CRO at FalconX and, before that, was the CRO of Pinterest, where he grew revenue from $125m to almost $3bn. He was also an early employee of Google, joining the company before it went public in 2004. He initially oversaw a 100-person sales team and scaled its Financial Services advertising business from $50m to $2bn. He was promoted to run US Enterprise Sales, leading a team of several hundred people and billions of dollars in revenue, where he was charged with building businesses including search, YouTube, DoubleClick, and mobile. 

“I see a lot of similarities between Madhive and my time at Google,” said Kaplan. “In the early days of programmatic advertising, the industry consisted of various point solutions, and we had to teach our clients the benefits of DoubleClick’s full-stack. This is what’s happening right now in the emerging streaming sector, and it’s one of the reasons for the disconnect between time spent by users and ad spend. Madhive has been modernizing legacy systems and building full-stack advertising solutions since streamings inception, and Im looking forward to seeing this through to scale.”

Flight Story names ex-Google X leader Gawdat as Chief AI Officer
Flight Story, the digital marketing and communications company co-founded by Steven Bartlett, (BBC Dragon’s Den & Diary of a CEO podcast host) and Oliver Yonchev, has appointed former Chief Business Officer at Google X, Mo Gawdat, as its Chief AI Officer (CAIO). The role was created to ensure the agency’s roster of groundbreaking clients stay at the forefront of the changing digital media landscape. 

Gawdat’s career has spanned 30 years at the forefront of disruptive technology, including roles at IBM, Microsoft, and at the helm of Google’s moonshot factory of innovation, Google X. Here, he oversaw the creation of self-driving cars and the company’s Google Life sciences division. His understanding of the gravity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is central to the global conversation on the next technological age. 

Gawdat had begun sounding the alarm of caution around AI before it was a global topic, back in 2021, with the release of his book, Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World. His expertise positions him as an essential voice on the topic at a time of particular uncertainty, and this appointment will be an additional platform for him to raise the vital issues to those who make decisions on how AI is being used, within the marketing landscape.

He said: “I have spent my career fascinated by the role that technology plays, and now the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced is upon us. Artificial intelligence is the culmination of technological advancement and it is my view that it will be unprecedented in defining the way the world is shaped. We need to act proactively and intelligently to its challenges: I am not in a position to change the course of AI and its impact, but with the resources and reach I have been given, I can influence the way people perceive it – and that’s where I’m focusing my attention.” 

Stafford to head up Imagination Detroit
Experience design company, Imagination, has promoted Tim Stafford to Managing Director, Detroit. Currently Director of Live Communications for Imagination Detroit, he will take up the role from September 1, 2023.

Stafford takes over from Alistair Wilson who, after over five years successfully leading Imagination Detroit and the agency’s relationship with Ford Motor Company globally, has chosen to return to Australia. Wilson will step into the newly-created role of Managing Director, Imagination Melbourne,  re-joining the Melbourne office that he helped originally establish more than 12 years ago.

Stafford joined Imagination in the UK in 2016, as Lead Creative Producer for the Ford account in London, before transferring to Detroit in 2019 to take on the role of Director of Live Communications. In Detroit, he has worked closely with Wilson on developing a world-class client relationship with Ford and driving continued growth and diversification across the business. Since 2020, Imagination Detroit has won over 35 industry awards.

To further strengthen its global relationship with Ford, Imagination is also announcing that Paul Cowan, Business Director Ford of Europe, Imagination London has been promoted to Business and Strategy Director of the Ford account. He will lead Imagination’s global Ford teams by bringing together expertise from across the network to serve Ford’s newly-formed customer focused business segments: Ford Blue, Ford Model e, and Ford Pro. Imagination plans to build on its track record of delivering creative excellence to help the automaker execute on its ambitious Ford+ plan to lead the new era of connected and electric vehicles.

“With these changes, we are ensuring our clients have greater access to our global depth of skills and experience by working across geographies in a more nimble, cohesive, and joined up way, based on changing client needs,” said Patrick Reid, Group CEO. “Tim was a clear choice to take on this role at this pivotal moment for Ford.  He is an accomplished creative talent and leader, who in partnership with Paul Cowan, will offer a wealth of experience, creativity, innovative thinking and passion to support the future success of Ford.”

Morley takes up Data and Transformation role at Sinch
Sinch, which powers meaningful conversations between businesses and their customers through its Customer Communications Cloud, has appointed Sylvan “Sibito” H Morley III, as Chief Data and Transformation Officer.

Morley has broad industrial experience from senior roles at companies across the technology, manufacturing, healthcare, and aviation sectors. In each of these roles, he has focused on the use of technology and data to better leverage existing assets and achieve identified strategic outcomes. He joins Sinch from a recent position as SVP and Chief Data Officer at Lumen Technology.

“Im very pleased to welcome Sibito to Sinch as we step up the pace of integration to ensure customers reap the full benefits of our broadened product offering,” said Synch CEO, Laurinda Pang. “His deep experience in business transformation will help unlock both revenue and cost synergies whilst ensuring we leverage our data to deliver outstanding customer experiences.”

Emodo announces four senior hires
Emodo, the mobile ad tech division of telecom firm Ericsson, has hired former Yahoo Head of Products, Rajeev Tyagi, as its new Chief of Product, along with three other new hires. Ravi Dhanjal joins as Senior Director of Product Management, Jo McCawley as Senior Director of Product Management, DSP, and Dawid Zambrzycki as Senior Director of Product Management, Yield, Optimization & Planning. 

Bringing over 30 years of product, technology, and leadership experience building high-performing teams and large-scale enterprise platforms in digital advertising, B2B and the consumer space, Tyagi will lead the charge in accelerating Emodo’s AI-driven performance and personalization in the programmatic advertising industry. Before this, he spent over 16 years at Yahoo leading products for two of the five large ad platforms, with over $2bn in annual revenue. In his last role as Yahoo’s Head of Products, Native and Reserved Advertising, Tyagi led the monetization strategy for Yahoo-as-a-publisher, innovation, and use of AI to mitigate privacy headwinds and improve performance. Prior to his time at Yahoo, Tyagi held leadership positions at major organizations spanning Capgemini Ernst & Young, IBM, and Citibank India. 

As Senior Director of Product Management, Dhanjal will oversee all advanced advertising products including Emodo’s new native ad offering, Adapt, a dynamically-optimized native ad offering. Hired as the Senior Director of Product Management, DSP, McCawley will serve as the product lead for Emodo’s DSP, Activate. And in his role as Senior Director of Product Management, Yield, Optimization & Planning, Zambrzycki will work to build upon the growing success of existing predictive capabilities from Emodo Adapt to audiences.  

“Alongside strengthening and widening our product offerings, we are also committed to investing in hiring the industry’s best and brightest to innovate and optimize our solutions and client campaigns, and scale our exchange through enhancing our DSP and SSP platform capabilities,” said Damian McKenna, Chief Operating Officer at Emodo. “With highly experienced talent like Rajeev, Ravi, Jo and Dawid at the helm at a pivotal time in Emodo’s success story, we will continue to double down on our mission to help advertisers and publishers create memorable connections with consumers through advertising that works better for everyone.” 

Other moves:
Scibids, which specialises in artificial intelligence (AI) for digital marketing, has appointed  Matthew Bushby as Head of Customer Success for the UK. Prior to Scibids, Bushby was Head of Programmatic at Zenith UK where he led the team, wider agency and clients on programmatic strategy and activation. Before that, he worked as Director of Programmatic at MediaCom and specialised in programmatic optimisation at MediaMath. Scibids complements clients’ Demand-Side Platform (DSP) data within custom bidding rules which are aligned to brand-specific goals. 

Jugo, which develops immersive virtual experiences, has hired Dan Wood as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In this role, Wood will spearhead the company’s branding and positioning initiatives, building critical relationships with potential partners, industry influencers and analysts to amplify awareness of Jugo’s platform among key audiences in the North American market. He Wood brings more than 25 years’ experience shaping and executing demand generation and brand awareness programs for B2B organizations across the technology sector to the role. He most recently served as the Director of Global Campaigns and Regional Marketing for Micro Focus, a global enterprise software provider recently acquired by OpenText. Wood also spent nearly two decades in various marketing positions for Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s enterprise software and data storage businesses. 

Covatic, which offers a privacy-first audience targeting solution, has announced two new appointments to strengthen its leadership team. Sarah Whitfield has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), while Sarah Lawson Johnston has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Whitfield joins Covatic from Pearson,  a global learning company, where she worked as Vice President of Global Marketing, driving the digital transformation of marketing across direct-to-consumer and business-to-business globally. She previously held several senior leadership roles, including VP of Marketing Communications, Global at AOL, VP of Global Marketing Programmes & Corporate Communications at Outbrain, and as VP of Marketing at Buzzoole Group. Lawson Johnston brings two decades of leadership experience in the ad tech industry to Covatic, having previously spent three years as part of the company’s launch team. Before joining Covatic, Lawson Johnston was EVP, Managing Director of Agency Partnerships EMEA at enterprise media platform, HudsonMX, where she drove the company’s commercial strategy with a focus on client success, revenue generation, and partnerships. She previously served as Managing Director, Europe at Mediaocean. 

Creative agency, Rankin Creative, has hired Warren Beeby as its new Chief Creative Officer, and Tom Loader as its new Creative Director. Beeby brings over 30 years’s experience in the creative industry to the role, having previously been a Partner and Co-creative Director at independent design studio, SPIN, where he worked on global brands, such as Nike and Levi’s, before founding his own agency, BB/Saunders in 2004. Since 2015 he has focused on the power of purpose and sustainability to transform brands at change agency Futerra. Loader has held the role of Creative Director at Futerra since 2017, where he worked on brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, COS, Bulgari, and the UN. He previously worked as a Senior Creative at Don’t Panic.

Ad tech platform, TripleLift, has hired Joyce Liu as Chief Financial Officer. Liu will lead financial operations for the company’s next phase of growth as it expands its audience targeting, connected television and retail media roadmap. She will oversee all of TripleLift’s finance functions, including planning, analysis, intelligence and governance. Liu most recently served in the same role at Politico, and her background spans industries from IT to CPG to Travel. While at Politico, she worked across functions to advance the impact of non-partisan journalism, diversify the company’s revenue streams, double its subscription and advertising revenues and significantly improve its margin profile, all of which contributed to a successful sale of the company to Axel Springer in late 2021 that was reported to be in excess of $1 billion.

Healthcare marketing agency, The Considered, has hired Jackie Colognesi as SVP of UX Strategy and Innovation. Colognesi brings a wealth of experience to the role, having served across fields including UX writing, content design, and creative strategy. In the process, she held senior roles at major medical companies such as H4B Chelsea, and most recently, was Director of Content at genomics and rare disease company, GeneDx (formerly Sema4). Among her other career accomplishments, the she was integral to creating the first ever online-ordering system for intrauterine devices, recruiting patients for a study meant to reduce risk and complications in pregnancy, and launching new products in the menopause category.

Independent Out of Home (OOH) media agency, Talon, has appointed Stewart Easterbrook as its new Chairman. Easterbrook brings extensive experience in media strategy and will lead Talon’s board in driving international growth and technological development. Easterbrook is a seasoned advisor to multiple omnichannel companies in media, data analytics and technology. Since 2014, he has worked with MiQ, the global analytics technology and programmatic media specialist. Serving as Chairman for seven years before transitioning to an advisory role in 2022, he played a key role for MiQ, successfully attracting significant private equity investments. In addition to his role at Talon, Easterbrook serves as Chairman of Medialab Group, an award-winning agency specialising in data, digital and media planning. He is also a board member of Instrumental, the online music talent discovery and management business, and a member of the management team that launched Content Inc., a specialist content marketing company.

Digital Remedy, a performance media partner for brands and agencies, has appointed Randall Rothenberg and Martin Kristiseter to its Board of Directors. Rothenberg spent 16 years as CEO and Executive Chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Prior to that, he was the Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Director of Intellectual Capital at Booz Allen Hamilton. Kristiseter is the Founder and Managing Director of Compulse, a marketing technology and managed services company for local media and agencies. Prior to Compulse, Kristiseter led innovative digital media initiatives at a number of companies, including Marketron, where he developed a reputation as a leader who can take a vision and turn it into a reality.

Programmatic media partner, MiQ, has appointed Zillah Byng-Thorne and Rob Norman as Non-executive Directors to its Global Statutory Board. With more than 20 years of experience in C-suite leadership roles, Byng-Thorne brings proven expertise in driving operational excellence for companies in online gaming, digital media and eCommerce to MiQ. Most recently, she served as CEO of Future plc., a global platform for specialist media – a position she held for almost a decade – which transformed under her leadership. Prior to Future, she held numerous CEO, CFO and non-executive director roles at companies including Trader Media Group, Fitness First Limited and Thresher Group. Norman is a highly respected and well-established luminary in the media technology sector. Most recently, he held executive leadership positions, including CEO North America, Global Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and advisory roles, at GroupM. He currently serves on numerous boards in the media technology space, including Simpli.fi, Piano, Nova and Barrington Media, and held prior Board Director roles with BBC Global News Limited and Comscore.

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