The mobile marketing industry is ever-changing, and that applies to the people as much as the technology. Movers & Shakers is our regular feature following the hottest hires in the industry, so you can keep track of who’s joined which company, and what they’re doing there.

Reed steps up to MD role at Essence
Essence, GroupM’s global data- and measurement-driven agency, has promoted its SVP head of client services, Ali Reed, to the role of UK managing director. In her new role, she will support EMEA CEO, Tim Irwin, in helping grow the UK business whilst overseeing all client relationships, new business and marketing, as well as continuing to develop initiatives to drive diversity and inclusion.

Since joining Essence in 2018, Reed has played an instrumental role in bringing big brands to the business, which has won clients including L’Oréal, Peloton and Argos, in the last year. As well as her dedication and skill for building brands, she is committed to developing talent and culture, and has championed a number of initiatives at Essence, including Return on Women, a drive for a more balanced leadership team and Project Nolan, a new business initiative to nurture rising pitch stars, putting 25 people through their paces already.

With a career in communications spanning almost 20 years, Reed has worked with some of the world’s largest brands, including Disney, Hasbro, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Three and Mazda. Prior to joining Essence, she held several leading client, planning and strategy roles at OMD UK, as well as spending time at The &Partnership, Mindshare, Naked Communications and Full Tilt Poker, where she was UK & Ireland marketing director.

She said: “I am thrilled to be taking on this role for Essence, surrounded by incredible talent who are pushing me, our practices, our clients and the industry to grow in more ethical and sustainable ways. The next few years will be about bringing our best-in class specialists together, combining fluidly and collaboratively to rise to client challenges.”

Buckley appointed COO at SpotX
Video advertising company SpotX has promoted its three-year chief revenue officer, Sean Buckley, to the role of COO. Buckley has been at SpotX since 2013, when he joined the company after almost five years at IDG TechNetwork in business development roles. Since January 2019, he has sat on the AdConnect advisory board of SpotX’s parent company, the broadcaster RTL.

SpotX also has a new chief people officer, in the shape of Jeanne Leasure. She was previously SVP, People and will be responsible for developing workforce plans that align with the company’s overall strategic objective, mission and values. This includes expanding initiatives around learning and development, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Rayment take up comms role at Publicis Media
Publicis Media has hired Mandy Rayment as its director of communications for the UK. In her role, she will be responsible for leading all internal and external communications for Publicis Media and its agencies, which includes Digitas, Performics, Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith.

She joins from Dentsu Aegis Network and brings a wealth of experience, having held numerous senior roles over a 12-year period, most recently as director of communications and marketing for the UK & Ireland.

During her tenure at Dentsu Aegis Network, Rayment was also a founder member and co-chair of its LGBT+ network and played a key role in driving the Group’s broader diversity and inclusion agenda. In 2019, she was named a ‘Top 10 Future Leader’ at the British LGBT+ Awards. Rayment takes up the position in April and will join Publicis Media’s executive leadership team, reporting directly to CEO, Sue Frogley.

Frogley said: “Mandy is highly respected in her field and brings years of industry experience that will be invaluable as we look to build on our recent successes. Our paths have crossed before so I’m thrilled to be working with her again and welcome her on board.”

Siviter takes up newly-created eCommerce role at Croud
Global digital marketing agency Croud has appointed Andy Siviter, former managing partner for product activation at iProspect, to the newly-established role of director of eCommerce, in the wake of a recent multi-million pound investment for the business.

Founded in 2011, Croud provides marketing consultancy, alongside SEO, PPC, content, programmatic, paid social and analytics services to brands including eve Sleep, Boohoo, Coast, and Paul Smith.

Siviter’s new role has been created in response to Croud’s significant growth in this area as it looks to cater for the fast-growing digital marketing opportunities across eCommerce channels. In the past 12 months, Croud has introduced a channel partnership with Amazon and launched its own technology platform Serpico, a Google Marketing Platform (GMP) sales partner supercharging in-house digital teams.

Siviter will be overseeing the continued development of these new fast-growing functions globally, and will be based in Croud’s Shrewsbury office, with approximately 110 staff.

“Hot on the heels of our recent £30m minority stake investment from LDC, Andy has come to Croud at a very exciting time,” said Croud CEO and co-founder, Luke Smith. “The areas that Andy will be overseeing – including GMP and Amazon – are going to be core drivers of growth for the business in the next couple of years, and we look forward to seeing him succeed in this new role.”

Gregory takes up sales and marketing leadership role at Jellysmack
Social video firm Jellysmack has hired Rob Gregory as president of sales and marketing. Gregory is an accomplished media executive who brings over 30 years of experience in the media and advertising industry. Most recently as a co-founder of Whosay, he built and ran the influencer marketing company’s sales, marketing and editorial teams, growing revenue 100X in five years and leading it to a successful acquisition by Viacom.

In his new role, he will lead Jellysmack’s go-to-market strategy, creating multi-faceted initiatives to generate brand revenue, broad awareness, and partnerships. He will report directly to Michael Philippe, CEO and co-founder of Jellysmack, and will be based at the company’s New York headquarters.

Gregory’s new role comes on the heels of Jellysmack’s explosive growth within the social video landscape, with a monthly US audience of over 88m unique viewers (source: Nielsen), over 2bn monthly video views and 125m global social followers. Its communities include beauty destination, Beauty Studio; soccer culture channel, Oh My Goal!; gaming channel Gamology; and Riddle Me This, an animated riddle show.

Jellysmack recently expanded its business model with the launch of its Creator’s Program, which helps video creators significantly bolster their social audience and ad revenue by using its insights and technology to untap the potential of these influencers’ libraries and optimizing new content across other social platforms. Jellysmack recently announced that it had paid out millions in advertising profit commissions to the initial 25+ partners in the first four months since launch.

“Social video has become the lingua franca of young consumers,” said Gregory. “What attracted me most to Jellysmack is their unique formula. They create original video content aligned with consumer passion points, using AI-driven technology to take the guesswork out of what will perform the best on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.”

Experienced Hessabi heads to HERE
Mapping and location services firm HERE Technologies has appointed Fred Hessabi to the role of senior vice president and general manager of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

In his new role, Hessabi will be responsible for driving regional revenue growth and diversifying the HERE customer portfolio. With HERE Workspace and HERE Marketplace at the core of the company’s platform, Hessabi will identify opportunities for customers, partners and developers, across industries, to leverage the power of location intelligence to solve their business problems. Hessabi replaces Stefan Hansen, who left HERE in December 2019 to take a position at NTT Data.

Prior to HERE, Hessabi was President of C3.ai International, a leading enterprise AI software provider for building enterprise-scale applications and accelerating digital transformation. In this role, he led and managed all C3 operations outside the USA, including sales, marketing and professional services.

He has more than 25 years of technology sales experience, and has worked with clients in a variety of sectors, including telecommunications, retail and the public sector. Before C3, Hessabi held leadership roles at several prominent companies. He was SAP’s General Manager of EMEA – North & Continental Europe, in charge of all SAP revenues and operations in the region and, before that, he was at Siebel Systems for 10 years, where he served as President of EMEA.

Hessabi holds a MBA degree from the SKEMA Business School in France and will be based in Paris.

Giles appointed chief human resource officer at Confluence
Confluence Technologies, a global technology solutions provider specialising in the worldwide money management industry, has appointed Annabel Giles to the newly-created role of chief human resource officer (CHRO).

This role was created to further develop the company’s human resources function, helping Confluence to develop its people strategy and continue to attract, retain and develop people successfully. As part of her role, Giles will be responsible for developing a talent management and resourcing strategy, as well as a global reward program, and for overseeing change management.

She comes to Confluence with over 20 years’ experience in human resources, mainly within the asset management and investment industry, and was most recently CHRO at the investment firm Actis LLP. Prior to this she was managing director, Human Resources – Global Trading at Credit Agricole CIB and head of HR at Lazard Asset Management.

Holding a BA (Hons) from University College London in languages and an MA in Human Capital Management from Westminster University, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in directing cultural development, talent management initiatives and establishing high performance environments.

She said: “I’m thrilled to be joining an innovative global company and one that recognizes the importance of human capital. Confluence is on an exciting trajectory and I look forward to helping it achieve further success by utilizing the experience and knowledge I have acquired in roles across both the asset management and investment banking sectors.”

Chair role is a Given for Gooding
Brand purpose agency Given has appointed Jan Gooding as its chair. Gooding has forged a successful, global brand and marketing career spanning 35 years, and is also known as a change agent on issues of diversity and inclusion. She has senior executive experience leading the marketing strategies of blue-chip brands, including Aviva, British Gas, BT, Diageo and Unilever. She is chair of PAMCo and President of the Market Research Society. She is also well known for pioneering equal parental leave during her time as global inclusion director at Aviva, and is chair of LGBT equality charity Stonewall.

As the new, non-executive chair of Given’s board, she will help accelerate its growth. Joining two other new, non-executive advisors she is the ‘last piece of the jigsaw’ to help fulfil the consultancy’s expansion both domestically and internationally at a time when brands are beginning to have an appetite for organisational change.

She said: “What excites me particularly is the opportunity I have to help bring Given’s true potential to fruition. For the last 10 years they have been working diligently in the background, building a fantastic client base and focusing on becoming a strong, strategic consultancy which can really add value within this incredibly important area of responsible business.

“There is a lot of chat about brand purpose having had its day. This is true of fake brand purpose and ‘purpose washing’. Now, thanks to pressure from both investors, consumers and the wider climate context, organisations are looking to make deep, structural changes to their operations. This is what true purpose has always been about and is what Given has always been focused on. Not only are they poised for growth, organisations are now poised for advice.

“They are able to execute real change for brands and I hope to help them get organised and resource up. They need to be more famous and it is very exciting to help accelerate their inevitable growth.”

For the last 10 years, Given has been establishing its credentials as a leader in the area of brand purpose. Founded by The Body Shop’s Becky Willan and creative planner David Hawksworth, the agency has been focused on delivering brand purpose with ‘substance’ – its proprietary definition for purpose work which drives concrete, positive change for businesses, communities and the world. The company’s current client list straddles an impressive range of industry sectors from retail and fashion to utilities and the financial services and includes household names such as Aviva, IKEA, John Lewis & Partners and Virgin Media.

Five go to Adverttu
On-car advertising platform, Adverttu, has appointed five new team members. These new starters will support Adverttu’s client roster of advertising, marketing and media buying agencies, in-house brand managers and marketers, and passionate local business owners and services.

Katie McIntyre joins as head of Adverttu’s ad agency commercial team, bringing extensive agency and media experience to the role, while Yasaman Jabbari joins the business development team as a business analyst, supporting Adverttu’s product teams.

Kseniia Kozlova, a designer specialising in intuitive UX design, has joined Adverttu’s team of technical designers, and Alex Hart has joined the company’s commercial sales department. Hart will be responsible for accelerating adoption of Adverttu’s hyperlocal offering, an outdoor ad solution enabling micro and SME businesses to reach local audiences.

Finally, Enrico Zanatta strengthens Adverttu’s commercial department. As an operations project manager, he is responsible for coordinating the logistics between drivers, commercial fleets and wrapping facilities. He is also working alongside the company’s development and product team to continuously improve internal processes.

These new hires take the company’s workforce to 19 people across 3 cities. Adverttu recently moved to larger London headquarters to accommodate the demand for its mobility advertising platform, which enables brands to advertise ‘on the road’ across a hyperlocal area, city, regionally or nationally.

“We’re building something special,” said Adverttu CEO and founder, Artjom Jekimtsev. “Our people hail from all over the world, creating an inclusive, experienced team who love turning our clients’ creativity into memorable on-car advertising campaigns that turn heads.”