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.

AccuWeather promotes Smith to president
Steven R. Smith has been named as president of AccuWeather, having previously served as president of the company’s digital media division. He will continue to lead the media portfolio, while expanding his purview to encompass companywide products, technology, research and development, corporate development and strategy.

Smith has been at AccuWeather since 1999, when he joined as a staff meteorologist. He held various roles at the company before being promoted to chief information officer in 2007, followed by a promotion to chief digital officer in 2013, and he was then named president of digital media in 2015.

He will continue to be a member of the board of directors for both AccuWeather and its joint venture with the Chinese Meteorological Agency, AccuWeather Huafeng Media Group.

“I am thrilled and grateful for this acknowledgement of my leadership and the course we have been charting for AccuWeather over the past few years,” Smith said. “I look forward to continuing to work with and for Joel [Myers] and with his strong and dynamic leadership team as well as the opportunity to have a greater impact on the business by accelerating our reach and continuing to drive innovation in ways only AccuWeather can.”

Maeda joins Publicis Sapient to lead experience
The Publicis Groupe’s digital business transformation hub, Publicis Sapient, has hired John Maeda as its chief experience officer. He has been tasked with using design and technology to ensure the creation of meaningful experiences for customers.

Maeda joins Publicis Sapient from Automattic, where he served as the global head of computational design and inclusion. Prior to that, he held the roles of design partner at Kleiner Perkins and design advisory board chair of eBay. He serves on the board of Sonos, the Smithsonian Design Museum and Weiden + Kennedy.

“When a technology becomes commoditised, the quality of experience becomes the key differentiating factor. But you cant have a great experience without being paired with great technology,” said Maeda. “Publicis Sapient brings to its clients full-stack engineering capabilities blended with its rich history at the forefront of creativity technologies — stretching back to the 90s back when I first knew about them in my MIT days. Aspiring to empower established businesses at all scales to realize great experiences for their customers to push back on Big Tech is in line with where my heart is right now. Im looking forward to the impact we can make and excited to join this great, multi-disciplinary team.”

Selligent brings in Stone on revenue marketing
Tim Stone has been appointed global head of revenue marketing at Selligent Marketing Cloud. Reporting to chief marketing officer Niki Hall, he will focus on delivering high revenue growth.

Stone brings over 20 years of experience to the role, with a background in demand generation, ABM, product marketing, channel marketing, field marketing, brand and marketing communications. He joins after tenures at Cisco and Polycom, where he drove substantial growth in marketing generated pipeline and revenue.

“Selligent is at the forefront of technological innovation, so it’s a very exciting time to join the company. I am a big advocate of helping brands put the customer at the heart of its marketing strategies – a great alignment with Selligent’s value proposition. I look forward to driving continued growth for the company and working alongside a talented team of marketers globally.”

Kalscheur appointed Monetate CMO
Optimisation and personalisation platform Monetate has hired Lisa Kalscheur as its chief marketing officer. She will work to build the Monetate brand globally, and will lead teams and initiatives that will help meet customer marketing needs.

Kalscheur is a former senior vice president at Newscred and vice president of marketing at AppNexus.

“Personalisation is the key to any brand staying competitive and relevant in the age of Amazon, and Monetate is in a unique position in the marketing industry to deliver a solution that allows customers to win by providing a superior customer experience,” said Kalscheur. “I’m honoured to be part of this world-class team.”

Jaywing hires duo
Helen Curtis and Pete Camponi have been appointed director of client services and creative director of copy, respectively, at marketing agency Jaywing.

Curtis will lead a client services team of 22 with a diverse range of responsibilities across Jaywing’s offices in Sheffield, Leeds and Australia. She was previously head of brand at Pure Collection and head of marketing at Freemans Grattan Holdings.

“I’m really excited to be joining Jaywing – an agency with outstanding creative talent and a proven track record in bringing together data, insights and industry-leading attribution capabilities,” said Curtis. “Many marketers aren’t lucky enough to have access to such a diverse range of skills, and so I’m really looking forward to being part of a team that delivers a genuinely holistic views for brands.”

Camponi will focus on growing Jaywing’s film and content output. He has served as creative director at Gratterpalm (now Creative Race) and founder & creative partner at Us&Them Ideas.

“I’m delighted to be working alongside such a talented group of people,” said Camponi. “The combination of cutting-edge data use and proven creative skills is what really attracted me to Jaywing. I can’t wait to see what remarkable work we achieve.”

Cipra joins Amify to head up marketing
Amify, which aims to help brands maximise their sales on Amazon, has hired Andy Cipra as its chief marketing officer. He will lead Amify’s HQ2 in Cincinnati, where the company has a warehouse near Amazon’s planned CVG Prime Air Hub.

Cipra arrives at Amify after a career that began at Procter & Gamble, where he managed campaigns for billion-dollar brands, including Crest, Iams and Vicks. He later led marketing at Dish Network serving as vice president and interim chief marketing officer. Most recently, he has been an executive at several technology start-ups including MedAvail, Safe-Rx and Boom Supersonic.

“I am excited to join Amify to help companies find success on Amazon, an increasingly complex, yet vital, channel for brands in nearly every category,” said Cipra. “Brands must have an Amazon strategy if they want to effectively connect with shoppers, and maximise their marketplace potential. We are focused on being the preferred partner for brands looking to leverage our deep Amazon expertise to drive growth with our unique offering that combines technology, insights and world-class capabilities in a turnkey solution.”

Deltatre hires former Verizon exec
Bhavesh Upadhyaya has joined Deltatre, a sport media technology provider, as its vice president of online operations in the Americas. Based in the Los Angeles office, he will oversee the delivery of client projects across the Americas.

Upadhyaya most recently worked at Verizon, where he led the delivery of several high-value OTT platforms for major brands. He previously led the technical and professional services teams that managed global distribution for several of the world’s largest sporting events, including four Olympic Games and the first Super Bowl to be streamed online. He also won an Emmy award for his involvement in delivering a new approach to sports programming at the Beijing Olympics.

“I’ve worked with Deltatre on many projects over the years, including the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics,” said Upadhyaya. “As OTT changes the content delivery game in sport, I’m excited to be part of a company that’s driving innovation and the future of this technology for many of the biggest names in the business.”

Ortega joins & Aagaard promoted at GTT
Cloud networking provider GTT Communications has hired Ernie Ortega as division president for the Americas, while promoting Jesper Aagaard to an expanded role of division president for Europe.

Ortega will lead an expanded Americas division, including enterprise, channel, carrier, and government clients. He was most recently CEO of Towerstream. Previously, he held senior executive roles at Colt Technology Services, Cogent, and XO Communications, and he began his career at MCI.

Jeff Beer will continue to lead the carrier business in the Americas, reporting to Ortega.

Aagaard has served as president of GTT’s Europe division since joining from GTT’s acquisition of Interoute in 2018. Martin Ford will continue to lead the UK region, reporting to Aagaard.

“We are excited to have Ernie join the GTT leadership team as we execute on our growth strategy in our Division structure. Ernie’s proven track record of driving organic revenue growth by building strong teams focused on customer satisfaction, retention and market share gains will be instrumental in building GTT’s market presence in the Americas,” said Rick Calder, GTT president and CEO. “Ernie and Jesper will expand GTT’s quota-bearing sales force to 500 representatives worldwide to address the significant market opportunity as we deliver on our purpose of connecting people across organisations around the world and to every application in the cloud.”