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…

Boris takes up CMO role at TripAdvisor
Travel guidance platform, Tripadvisor, has announced the appointment of tech, travel and hospitality veteran, John Boris, as its Chief Marketing Officer.

In the role, Boris will establish a world-class marketing function for Tripadvisor, where he will have direct responsibility for the platforms B2C and B2B marketing strategy and execution. He will initially focus on creating a holistic strategy predicated on driving customer acquisition and engagement, marketing efficiency, brand reach and resonance, partnerships and growing the international customer opportunity.

“Im excited to have John join Tripadvisor as our Chief Marketing Officer, knowing he will put the needs of travelers and our partners at the heart of everything we do. John has a demonstrated track record building global brands and this company will benefit from his deep experience in e-commerce, travel and hospitality,” said Matt Goldberg, CEO, Tripadvisor, Inc. “Most importantly, John is passionate about Tripadvisor given the global strength of our brand, our wealth of data, depth of content, and the innovative products and services we provide the travelers, experience-seekers, diners and partners we serve.”

He has served in several C-suite and executive leadership roles during his career, including Chief Marketing Officer at Shutterfly, and Senior Vice President of Marketing at Zagat. He has also held several senior operational roles, including Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the US business for Lonely Planet Americas, and CEO of IfOnly, a bespoke experience marketplace which was acquired by Mastercard in 2019.

He said: “I am truly honored to join this company and humbled to be given the responsibility to continue to make an iconic and industry-leading brand like Tripadvisor essential to the hundreds of millions of travelers around the globe using our products and services to plan their next trip. As we look to the future of all our brands across the company, we will leverage the return of global demand to make the experience of travel and dining more meaningful and memorable for those taking their next holiday or vacation.”

Taylor to head up Marketing at Pizza Express
PizzaExpress has named Stephen Taylor as its new Chief Marketing Officer. This appointment comes at an exciting time for the brand, following its rapid digital transformation, accelerated re-model programme and recently expanded delivery proposition. Reporting to CEO, Paula MacKenzie, Taylor’s mission will be to harness the power of PizzaExpress’ heritage to further develop PizzaExpress as a distinctive and unifying brand.

Taylor has a rich history of transformative and creative brand-building at major consumer brands, both in the UK and Internationally. His previous roles include European CMO at Samsung; VP Consumer at Paypal;  and several senior marketing roles at Proctor & Gamble. Most recently he led the global marketing function at Nokia as Global CMO. His experience of placing sustainability at the core of the business at Nokia phones stands him in good stead, with PizzaExpress committing to being net zero by 2040.

He accredited PizzaExpress as an iconic brand that has remained close to his heart throughout each of his life stages and because of this, he is delighted to join PizzaExpress and help take the brand to the next level of growth.

In his new and expanded role as Chief Marketing Officer, Taylor will oversee the Digital & Loyalty, Brand & Marketing Communications, Strategy & Insight, Food & Beverage, and PizzaExpress Live Music teams. Under Taylor, these teams will work collaboratively to ensure PizzaExpress is laser-focused on customers globally, offering them quality, convenience and value that is uniquely PizzaExpress. As part of this, he will lead an increased focus on creating a vibrant and inclusive dining experience in the firm’s Pizzerias.

“PizzaExpress is a much-loved iconic brand, and we need a dynamic CMO to lead a creative marketing strategy that combines our heritage with fresh, distinctive brand building,” said PizzaExpress CEO, Paula MacKenzie. “Stephen brings diverse experience with a proven-track record of honing a brand identity and resurrecting nostalgic brands. Leading a talented team, he will ensure that we show up in both an authentic and relevant way to loyal and new customers across our omnichannel business, a key part of fuelling our future growth. We’re thrilled to be welcoming him to team PizzaExpress.

Future makes two senior hires
Future plc has appointed Rob George as VP of eCommerce. George has a wealth of experience working in retail and brings with him a strong track record of attracting customers, guiding their digital buying decisions and profitably converting them. He has spent his career working with leading retail brands, including Sainsbury’s and Argos across a range of strategy, change, marketing, digital and commercial roles, and prior to this started his career in strategy consulting at PwC. He will join Future at the end of January 2023. 

In addition, Future has hired Kevin Addley as Senior Vice President (SVP) Games, Entertainment, Technology and Sport (GETS). Addley, who will be joining Future in March 2023, is currently the UK Country Manager at Audible, where he has been since 2012, and in his role he has overseen significant growth in the UK business.

Prior to his current role, he was VP Marketing and International Operations, responsible for all aspects of revenue growth for the UK business as well as supporting Audibles expansion across the globe. He joined Audible from parent company Amazon, where he was responsible for its primary traffic-driving channels, and prior to this he held a number of marketing and business development roles for leading digital organisations.  

“I’m delighted to welcome Kevin as SVP of GETS,” said Future CEO, Zillah Byng-Thorne. “Kevin brings a wealth of experience and will help us continue to grow our GETS vertical and deliver the Group’s strategy.”

Dean makes WeTransfer transfer
WeTransfer has hired Damon Dean as its Chief Product Officer and promoted Dan Conti to the role of Chief Technology Officer. Dean joins from OneLogin, where he was also CPO, responsible for leading and growing the product management, customer experience, program management and solutions architecture teams. He will be responsible for product management, user experience and data.

Dean, who is based in San Francisco, spent eight years at DocuSign, leading on its advanced technology efforts including machine learning, blockchain and biometrics. Most recently he has also held advisory roles at SILQ Finance and Sendoso, building SaaS products, demand generation best-practices, scaling businesses and laying the foundations for growth for both up-and-coming and established players. As a true creative, his career spans publishing, video game making, start-ups and agencies among other executive roles. 
He said: “I’m thrilled to join a business with so much abundant creativity, talent and ambition. WeTransfer is a brilliant example of a company that paved the way in building an inherently viral product that is still as relevant and loved today as it was a decade ago. But the work doesn’t stop here, we have much more to achieve, new technologies to explore and I feel confident about taking on the challenge of scaling the product offering in 2023 and beyond.”

As CTO, Conti is tasked with scaling WeTransfer’s technology infrastructure, and investing to further develop WeTransfer’s tech capabilities. He has held multiple engineering roles at Microsoft over a 15-year tenure at the software giant, culminating in him leading strategy development for long-term VR and AR device experiences. 

Since launching WeTransfer Premium in January 2022, the business has introduced several key product developments and features, and increased investment in the mobile experience. The hero features include Portals and Reviews, enabling creatives and teams to organize and simplify the client or collaborator feedback process, while empowering them with more effortless ways to customise the way they deliver their work.  

Carroll takes Brand Director role at Ultimate Products
Ultimate Products, the owner of a number of leading homeware brands including Salter (the UKs oldest houseware brand) and Beldray, has appointed Tracy Carroll to the role of Brand Director. She joins from Helen of Troy, an American designer, developer and marketer of consumer brands, where she served as Associate Marketing Director.

Carroll joined Helen of Troy in 2007 to launch and grow the OXO homeware brand in the UK. In 2014, she was promoted to the role of Associate Brand Director, which led to her remit being expanded to include all marketing activities for the OXO brand in the entire EMEA region. Helen of Troy specialises in Home & Outdoor, Health & Wellness, and Beauty product categories. Its leading brands include OXO, Hydro Flask, Osprey, Vicks, Braun and Honeywell.

Carroll will be Ultimate Products’ first dedicated Brand Director, a role that will see her lead the Group’s brand and marketing strategy, management, and communications function.

She said: “I am delighted to join Ultimate Products as its first-ever Brand Director and to have the opportunity of helping it realise its international and online growth plans. I have long admired Ultimate Products’ brands, and I’m looking forward to playing my part in the team’s efforts to provide beautiful and more sustainable products for every home.”

Butler to lead agency sales at Merkle Media
Data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company, Merkle, has appointed Michael Butler to the role of Head of Agency Sales for Merkle’s Media practice area. Butler’s appointment follows a period of significant growth for the business, which spans PPC, paid social, programmatic, digital consultancy and customer strategy.

In his new role, Butler will be instrumental in leading the media sales team and driving significant business growth for new and existing Merkle clients across both media and CXM. This will enable clients to seamlessly access both services and deliver a total customer experience across every interaction a customer has with a brand.

Butler brings a wealth of experience to Merkle, after more than 11 years at Essence. Most recently as Head of Business Development EMEA, he achieved huge success in diversifying Essence’s client roster, playing an instrumental role in the addition of brands such as Sainsburys, Argos, ITV, L’Oréal and, most recently Mars.  

“Michael’s impressive track record of winning and retaining some of the largest UK and international brands, makes him the perfect choice to lead our media sales team in the next phase of our growth evolution” said Toby Benjamin, Managing Director of Media at Merkle.

“Brands are now continuously having to evolve to keep up with customer’s ever-changing expectations, and at Merkle we are uniquely positioned to help our clients deliver contextually relevant, consistent, and seamless experiences for their customers.”

Wunderman Thompson expands client leadership team
Wunderman Thompson has announced the appointment of Lizzie Snell as Managing Director and Jim Dyer as Head of Client Leadership, as the agency expands its client leadership team.

Snell will be responsible for managing client leadership, delivery and operations across the business. She will be a key driver in building integrated teams from experts across creative, CRM, data, technology, experience, social and commerce to deliver modern marketing. She will also oversee accounts including Canon, Specsavers and Mercedes Benz Vans.

Most recently Client Partnership Director at global business transformation company Valtech, she was responsible for setting up the Client Partnership practice, identifying and building partnerships with clients, scaling transformation across a number of clients, including the Very Group, Kingfisher and Rail Delivery Group.

Prior to joining Valtech, she spent eight years at WPP, two as Managing Director at Mirum Agency, and six years as Head of Client Services at digital agency Possible, where she oversaw new business wins including Specsavers, Canon Europe and Mercedes Benz.

In his new role, Dyer will be responsible for leading, crafting and developing the client leadership department, whilst overseeing KitKat, Smarties and Quality Street, and The Coca Cola Company portfolio working with OpenX, the bespoke WPP unit responsible for the Coca Cola Company.

He previously spent six years at Pulse Creative, the on-site communications agency for News UK, encompassing creative, planning, production and media for The Sun, The Times, talkTV, talkSport and Virgin Radio. he has a history of producing award-winning work, including a D&AD Pencil for The Times ‘Politics Tamed’; Creative Circle and DMA awards for The Times ‘Another Busy Year’ and The Sunday Times Rich List. Prior to Pulse Creative, Dyer spent a decade at Proximity London, where he worked across The Economist, John Lewis and BBC TV Licensing, picking up a DMA Grand Prix, Cannes Lions and two IPA Effectiveness awards.

“We’re thrilled to have Lizzie and Jim on board,” said Wunderman Thompson UK CEO, Pip Hulbert. “They both bring huge passion for producing great work that gets the nation talking, proven expertise leading high performing teams and together I know will inspire our clients and people.”

Separately, Wunderman Thompson Commerce, has appointed Ashton Hubbard as Sustainable Commerce Director to support retailers in creating and advancing their environmental commitments. Hubbard brings expertise across consulting, creative, technology and operations through her passion and advocacy for environmental, social and business governance. She joins the sustainability team to support in developing the global Sustainable Commerce Practice, in partnership with clean technology company, Vaayu Tech.

She said: “Through our practice, we will be able to significantly impact retailers’ supply chains with two main goals. Firstly, to reduce their supply chain footprint towards net zero and beyond. The second is to help clients reimagine a world where business and sustainability are synonymous. I’m looking forward to growing our Sustainable Commerce Practice, and working with brands that are at the forefront of innovation so together we can achieve their environmental goals without sacrificing quality of service or goods.

Teh to head up Planning at Starcom  
Starcom has appointed Lin-Sze Teh to the role of Head of Planning. In the role, she will be responsible for supercharging Starcom’s planning division to drive faster growth for clients, by ensuring a clear and consistent approach to media, fuelled by Publicis Media’s data, tools, and systems. She joins Starcom UK’s leadership team, reporting into CEO Nadine Young. She will oversee a team of 80 planners and starts in January 2023.

 The previously spent over seven years at iProspect (and previously Vizeum), most recently as Managing Partner, working across brands including IKEA, 20^th Century Fox, Weetabix, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry and Mini.  She previously held roles at MGOMD and UM, where she built her experience in media planning and strategy.

She said: “It’s no secret that Starcom’s been on fire recently and I couldn’t say no to the opportunity of working with Nadine and the talented team at Starcom. Their vision for the agency and approach to solving client challenges is inspiring, and I cannot wait to get started.”

Ozone hires Geellan as Agency Hub Lead for GroupM
Premium digital advertising platform, Ozone, has appointed Danny Geelan as its new Agency Hub Lead for GroupM. Geelan joins Ozone after almost 12 years at UK publisher DMG Media, where he held a variety of senior positions, most recently as Head of Sales for Mail Metro Media. 

He brings a wealth of industry experience with him. His many key achievements include negotiating multi-million-pound trading agreements with key agencies, including GroupM, and acting as Mail Metro Media’s sales lead for all Government display advertising during the COVID pandemic, as part of Newsworks’s All Together newsbrands campaign. 

“We’re absolutely delighted to be welcoming Danny to the team to lead our agency hub team for GroupM agencies,” said Ozone Chief Revenue Officer, Craig Tuck. “Danny brings with him a wealth of industry experience, and has an impressively strong network of senior contact across agencies, especially at GroupM. Danny’s an incredibly smart operator and I look forward to working with him.” 

VCCP doubles down on strategy with new hires
VCCP Group has promoted Michael Lee to the newly–created role of Chief Strategy Officer of VCCP Partnership, and appointed Clare Hutchinson as VCCP London’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Over the past decade Lee has driven the rapid evolution of VCCP’s strategy offering. He has prioritised creating a highly collaborative strategic culture that has resulted in VCCP developing a world-class reputation for integrated brand strategy.

He has made huge progress in achieving closer collaboration between VCCP’s 16 disciplines within VCCP in the UK, and has played a leading role in driving the rapid growth of VCCP’s data strategy offering, alongside the recent partnership and strengthening of Customer Engagement capability. Lee has also played a major role in the dramatic growth of the agency, from his exceptional new business record to leading a strategy team that has created multiple award-winning campaigns for clients including Cadbury, O2, comparethemarket.com, Walkers, Canon and easyJet.

Hutchinson joined VCCP in July 2021 as Deputy Chief Strategy Officer and has played a key role in driving the agency’s effectiveness, reputation and awards success alongside the day-to-day running of the Mondelez account as Global Lead. Hutchinson now solely takes the strategic reins of an agency that has grown its London planning team significantly in the past year to around 50 staff, and recently won the biggest pitch of the year, Virgin Media O2.

Lee said: ‘I’m just as excited by this new partnership role as I am to be appointing Clare as the new CSO. Since arriving she has brought fresh thinking and strategic output of the very highest quality, as well as being a brilliant role model for her team and a great cultural fit with VCCP. Her impact has been recognised across VCCP, where she has become a valued part of the management team and was instrumental in VCCP achieving its best ever performance in effectiveness awards over the last 12 months.”

VCCP London has also hied Richard Nott as a new Creative Director. Nott joins VCCP with a wealth of industry experience. His most recent role as Creative Director at Engine involved leading the creative campaign for Eurostar as well as spearheading the creative rebrand of Churchill Insurance, helping them find their ‘Chill’ to reinvigorate the brand.

Most notably, however, in a pledge to raise awareness and caution around knife violence and gang crime, Nott led the creative for the award-winning Kiyan Prince Foundation ‘Long Live the Prince’ campaign which inspired the nation to seize life’s boundless opportunity. Approaching what would have been the peak of the player’s football career, the campaign recreated Kiyan as a character in the all-time fan favourite FIFA game. The campaign claimed a multitude of global awards including the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes, a collection of Yellow and Black Pencils at D&AD, The One Show and British Arrows, Creative Circles Gold of Golds, seven Campaign BIG Awards and the DMA Awards Grand Prix.

At VCCP, Nott will work across the global Mondelez and Virgin Media O2 accounts and will report into VCCP London Executive Creative Directors, Jonny Parker and Chris Birch.

Separately, VCCP Group has hired Robert Wills as its first New York Chief Marketing Officer. The newly–created role comes as VCCP continues to spread its wings in the North American market. Wills joins directly from VCCP’s headquarters in London where he served as Chief Marketing Officer, EMEA. His new role will see him driving VCCP NY’s reputation and growth. He will be building a team of new business and communications specialists from the ground up, ensuring steady business growth and elevating the agency’s positioning as the challenger agency for challenger brands.
Starting his career with VCCP 12 years ago, Wills worked his way up to CMO for the EMEA region. In London, he helped grow VCCP’s footprint to be recognised as the most in demand agency for new business from 10 out of the past 11 years. As an integral part of the VCCP London team for the better part of 12 years, he successfully helped win new clients, including LinkedIn, Honda Motorcycles and Everli. 

His new role follows the appointment of Brett Edgar as the Group’s first ever North American Chief Executive Officer and Caroline Grayson as Managing Director of VCCP New York in October. Both join Jonny Shaw, the group’s International CSO and Ray Del Savio, ECD NY to make up the management bench. These major hires are testament to the rapid growth in North America and mark a pivotal moment for the agency as VCCP continues to expand and add significant brands to their roster of clients.

Wills said: “After an incredible 12 years at VCCP in London, I am excited to be joining such a world-class team in New York at such a pivotal time for the agency and look forward to sharing over a decade of learnings from working with the team in London.

Two senior hires for Reddit  
Reddit has hired Stephen Riad as VP of Global Mid-Market and SMB Sales, and Roelof van Zwol as VP of Ads Engineering.

Charged with defining the global strategy and structure for Reddit’s mid-market and small business (MM and SMB) sales organization, Riad will lead the sales teams responsible for driving monthly active advertiser growth within these important segments. He will oversee client and agency relationships, and work closely with cross-functional leaders across the business to ensure the strongest solutions for these partners. 

Riad joins Reddit from Google, where he held senior roles across strategy, sales, operations, and business growth, and was charged with establishing the company’s first MM and SMB acquisition business across the Asia Pacific region. An Australian now based in London with his wife and three children, Stephen’s favorite Reddit communities include r/casualUK and r/boxing, which is not surprising given his background as a competitive boxer. 

With almost 20 years of experience in machine learning, most recently from Pinterest, where he was Head of Monetization Sciences and ML Engineering, van Zwol is focused on leading the technical strategy, execution, and team behind Reddit’s monetization engine. He is responsible for building the architecture that powers Reddit’s Ads Marketplace and overseeing the Ads Software, Solutions, and Reliability Engineering teams to ensure a best-in-class offering for Reddit advertisers around the world. 

Prior to Pinterest, Roelof held senior positions at Netflix and Yahoo!, with roles spanning engineering, product innovation, and research contributing to his well-rounded career in tech. Originally from the Netherlands, Roelof lived and worked in Barcelona for several years before settling down in Silicon Valley with his wife and two teenage children. He holds a Masters and Ph.D. in Computer Science and when he’s not working, you’ll likely find him fine-tuning his bass skills or connecting with others doing the same in r/bass.

He said: “It’s a thrilling time to join Reddit as online communities are becoming more and more integral to the daily lives of audiences around the world. I personally find myself using Reddit every day, whether it’s to find answers to specific questions or learn and share knowledge around topics that interest me. Reddit is in a unique position to bring together users and advertisers based on their shared interests and goals, and I’m so pleased to be able to help advance the monetization of Reddit as a platform by bringing more value to advertisers and users alike.”

Laycock to EMEA CEO and Turner to UK MD at Incubeta
Digital marketing group, Incubeta, has appointed Sally Laycock as EMEA CEO and Andrew Turner as UK Managing Director, following the acquisition of a majority stake in the company by investment firm, Carlyle.

With more than 25 years’ combined experience in digital advertising, the pair will continue to support Incubeta’s clients and people by championing the company’s core values of; Dare To Lead, Earn Trust, Exceed Expectations, and Help Others to Succeed.

Laycock joined Incubeta in 2008 as Financial Controller. In the midst of the pandemic, in February 2021, she was appointed UK CEO and in October she was listed as The Times/LDC’s Top 50 most ambitious leaders in the UK 2022. 

By taking ownership of Incubeta’s work across EMEA, she will be part of the company’s initiative to redefine business management and develop efficiency, regional growth and standardisation across the different regions. By breaking down regional silos and collaborating on an international scale, she will lead the charge in sharing success from different territories and will develop a standardised process across all of the companies offices. 

Taking over the helm of Incubeta UK, Turner joined Incubeta in 2010 and was appointed Chief Revenue Officer in January this year. Having spent 10 years with the digital marketing group leading on partnerships, new business, and more recently regional marketing, Turner has been instrumental in propelling the company forward with new client wins and fostering the agency’s commitment to working with industry partners. Key new business successes in his tenure include Marks and Spencer and The AS Watson group, with Google, Meta, Tik Tok and Microsoft as key partnerships Turner has invested in driving at a regional level.

He said: “In my 12 years at Incubeta, digital advertising has changed beyond recognition. It’s been a thrilling experience to be at the forefront of this change and to support our clients to make the best of innovative technologies and marketing strategies available to them. 

“As UK Managing Director, I will continue Incubeta’s trajectory as an industry-leading growth partner. It’s instilled in our DNA as a company to be constantly thinking about what tomorrow’s world of digital advertising will look like. With this in mind, I’m so excited for the next twelve years – and more – in this space.”

Other moves:
Digital agency, Organic, has promoted two senior team members. Having previously held the role of Head of Client Services since November 2019, Tim Burley has been promoted to Client Services Director. Additionally, ex-Head of SEO and long-standing employee Joe Ford is now the company’s Director of SEO. Burley will join the Senior Management Team, with an overall responsibility for building excellent client relationships and driving future growth for the agency.  He will lead the Client Services team and support wider goals across both client strategy and business development. Ford will lead the SEO team, responsible for driving the strategic and executional direction of SEO across the agency and improving client and agency performance. He will oversee departmental strategy and progress, and will continue to grow the SEO department.

Code Computerlove has appointed Gemma Handley as its new Managing Director. She joined Code in 2018, and the promotion sees her moving from Commercial Director to Managing Director at the start of 2023, to lead the 80-strong agency through its next phase of growth. She will replace current MD Rob Jones who is taking up a new position outside the group. Handley has 15 years’ experience in commercial delivery and operation, and has been instrumental in introducing new company-wide operational and cultural initiatives, alongside progressing team-centric practices and relationship-focused collaboration tools. Prior to joining Code, she held delivery roles at some of Manchester’s biggest dotcoms, including LateRooms and ao.com as well as working for agencies like Kin & Carta (formerly Amaze) and Dept (formerly Building Blocks). In January, the group will be officially part of EssenceMediacom and move into the new WPP Campus based in Enterprise City and St John’s tech, media and creative quarter.

Insuretech, Wefox, has appointed Laura Eschricht as Chief Marketing Officer. She’s a seasoned marketing professional with over 15 years’s global experience that spans both the beauty and fashion industries within both B2B and B2C environments, and includes leading eCommerce retailer Zalando, and global beauty brands, Amika and Moroccanoil. In July this year, wefox successfully closed a series D round of $400m giving the company a post-money valuation of $4.5bn.

Integral Ad Science has appointed  Khurrum Malik as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Malik will accelerate market growth initiatives for IAS and lead its global marketing strategy. He will be based in New York and report directly to Yannis Dosios, Chief Commercial Officer. Malik is a technology marketing leader with a broad range of experience driving growth for public and private companies. Most recently, he was Head of Global Business Marketing at Spotify, where he led business marketing, creative, product marketing, measurement, and analytics teams within Spotify’s advertising business. Previously, he served as CMO of Compass, a real estate technology platform, and was Head of Product Marketing at Meta. Malik holds an MBA, M.S., and B.A. from the University of Virginia. IAS has also appointed Emma Jowett as Vice President, Sales of Northern Europe, and Tania Secor as Chief Financial Officer.  

Zefr has announced the promotion of Ryan Barker to Chief Technology Officer. Barker has been with Zefr since 2016. He has played an integral role in the growth and momentum of the companys technical vision and strategic business investments, helping to deliver world-class technology that has solidified Zefr as a leader in ad targeting and measurement on complex media platforms. Most recently, he played a key part in the development and architecture of Atrium, the companys new advanced suite of measurement solutions powered by its patented Cognition AI technology. Prior to Zefr, Barker was the Software Architect for Eharmony, where he designed and built a machine learning-based matchmaking system. Before that, he was a Principal Engineer at ITG Inc (now Virtu Financial), providing financial modelling technologies designed to reduce transaction costs for institutional investors. 

Moloco, which specialises in machine learning and growth solutions for performance marketers, has appointed Ben Jeger as Vice President of EMEA. With over a decade of mobile app marketing experience, he will focus on delivering the next stage of Moloco’s growth in the EMEA region. Immediate priorities include increasing Moloco’s EMEA team of world-class talent to help businesses scale their performance ad campaigns, through Moloco Cloud DSP, which uses machine learning with Deep Neural Networks to optimise campaigns for the best return on ad spend. In addition, his team will support Moloco’s Retail Media Platform, which focuses on the unique needs of eCommerce marketplaces by enabling merchants to create ad campaigns that increase discoverability and sales through relevant ad placements to the right shoppers at the right time. 

Global influencer agency, Billion Dollar Boy (BDB), has appointed of Serafin Sivcak as Account Director for the DACH region. Sivcak will support the expansion of BDB’s European presence, covering Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. His appointment follows news that BDB UK becomes BDB Europe to reflect its existing offering across the region and to meet the demand for creator marketing across Europe. He brings almost ten years’ industry experience in account management. Previous experience includes a role as Senior Brand Marketing Manager at Google, where he developed and executed marketing projects for Google Search, Google Maps and Google Wallet, as well as account management roles at R/GA, BBDO Worldwide, Scholz & Friends and Jung von Matt, where he worked for a number of brands across a range of sectors including Whatsapp, YouTube, Adidas, DFB, Tipico, Shopify, Puma and Swisscom. In addition, BDB Co-founder, Thomas Walters, has been appointed as Europe CEO. He is supported by multilingual regional experts across the business, including Suzanne Stal, Business Director and BENELUX specialist (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), and Maxime Rozencwajg, Senior Account Director and France Specialist.

Contextual advertising firm, Seedtag has hired Kenneth López Triquell as its Global head of Performance. He will be responsible for leading the global go to market of Seedtag’s new performance solution that will help brands achieve outstanding mid and low funnel campaign results in a cookieless world. He brings over 15 years’ experience in the advertising industry, serving in sales leadership roles both in EMEA and worldwide. Prior to working at Seedtag, he launched Zemanta (Outbrain’s DSP), one of the first native advertising DSPs in the industry. Previously, he served as VP Sales at Adsmurai, a Facebook marketing partner, where he developed and executed the go-to market strategy in Europe. He has also worked at companies including Twitter, Yahoo, Dentsu and Havas, which has allowed him to gain a wide range of experience and expertise in the digital space.

Assertive Yield has appointed Ryan Abrahams as Chief Revenue Officer; Musarrat Bano as Head of Customer Success; and Katia Moura Rodrigues as Head of Marketing. Abrahama brings with him an illustrious career spanning two decades in ad tech and programmatic sales, holding various roles in companies such as Admeld, Amobee iMedia Brands, Synacor, and STAQ. He will be responsible for driving new client acquisition and increasing sales, while optimizing the company’s brand and visibility within the publishing and advertising tech ecosystems. Bano will also help drive Assertive Yield’s growth as its Head of Customer Success. Her background in AdOps for companies like Alphabet, HCLTech and Automatad will prove essential in the retention of current and future customers and ensuring all client-facing operations run smoothly throughout the company. Rodrigues joins as Head of Marketing. For more than 18 years, she has built a reputation around her expertise in managing and overseeing strategic marketing for SaaS products and brands such as AbbVie, TIVIT Labs, Siemens, and Bayer. She will be responsible for building out Assertive Yield’s marketing department, structuring the team, and building the brand as part of the company’s expansion strategy which includes the US market.

Product-to-consumer (P2C) software company, Productsup, has appointed Sharon Scortis to the role of Chief People and Culture Officer (CPCO). Bringing more than 20 years’ experience in leading business and people processes for enterprise software companies, Scortis will help strengthen collaboration, engagement, and inclusivity across Productsup’s global team, as well as accelerate the company’s growth. Throughout her career, Scortis has held numerous HR leadership positions at various enterprise and SaaS companies, including most recently Adthena and Blue Prism. She ran her own HR consultancy business for several years, advising technology and professional services organizations on international HR practices. At Productsup, Scortis will be responsible for leading all strategic and operational people processes, including talent acquisition, learning and development, employer branding, internal communication, and workplace culture.   

GrowthOps Asia has hired Shakira Pathmarajah as its new Talent Acquisition Head, managing recruitment in GrowthOps for Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, as well as remote hiring in India. Pathmarajah has more than a decade’s experience in technology recruitment, with a broad experience in digitised recruitment systems, such as SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Hirevue, and Taleo.