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.

Airship makes four executive appointments
Customer engagement company Airship has made four senior leadership appointments including Dale Flores as vice president of sales for the Americas, Neil Gariepy as vice president of infrastructure and security, David King Harris as vice president of sales for EMEA, and Jeff Winsor as vice president of technology services.

Flores will lead the expansion of Airship’s Americas sales organisation, growing solution adoption to generate greater business value for customers throughout the region. He brings two decades of global SaaS sales and customer success management to the role, including 14 years leading sales teams at Silverpop and IBM, and, most recently, was head of customer success at Clicktale.

Gariepy will lead Airship’s customer engineering, infrastructure and security teams, with responsibility for expanding Airship’s infrastructure globally while further optimising its cost, performance and security. Like Flores, he brings 20 years’ experience to the position, including 16 years leading cloud applications and infrastructure processes at Netsuite. Most recently, he served as vice president of engineering and information security at Percolate.

King Harris will lead Airship’s EMEA sales organisation directing regional growth from the company’s new London office in Southwark and its locations in France and Germany. He brings nearly a decade of sales leadership experience driving European business objectives for martech companies including Lyris, Silverpop, IBM and, most recently, Movable Ink as regional vice president of sales for EMEA.

Winsor, who has led Airship’s program management function that spanned leadership of several different technical teams for six years, has been promoted to lead the program management, technical documentation, and quality assurance teams.

“Dale, Neil, David and Jeff bring an incredible set of leadership skills to further refine and scale our teams, technology and expertise to best serve Airship’s expanding global customer base,” said Brett Caine, CEO and president of Airship.

Ahrendts joins Airbnb board
Angela Ahrendts has joined the board of directors at Airbnb, becoming its third independent non-affiliated board member.

For the past five years, she oversaw global retail at Apple, integrating the company’s physical and digital businesses across its online store, app and more than 500 retail stores in 25 countries. Prior to Apple, Angela spent eight years as CEO at Burberry, where she tripled the business and created the Burberry Foundation. That gig was preceded by her role as executive vice president at Liz Claiborne Inc., and earlier as president of Donna Karan International.

“I am elated by the opportunity to join Airbnb’s board of directors at this important phase on the incredible journey of the company and its community of hosts and guests,” said Ahrendts. “I have known Brian [Chesky], Joe [Gebbia] and Nate [Blecharczyk] for years and have a deep admiration and respect for their vision, purpose and the positive impact they want Airbnb to make in communities all around the world.”

Merkle brings in Stagg to head EMEA client services
Dentsu Aegis Network’s performance marketing agency, Merkle, has hired Anne Stagg to take up the role of vice president of client services for EMEA.

She will be responsible for the strategic direction of a portfolio of clients, predominantly across retail and travel, as part of the EMEA Client Services leadership team – while also extending the delivery of Merkle’s integrated data-driven services.

Stagg previously held the roles of managing director at Indicia, and head of client management at Experian.

“I’m really impressed with the team Merkle has built, having worked with many of them previously,” said Stagg. “What most attracted me to the role was the opportunity to work with the very best talent and technology the industry has to offer. Merkle’s portfolio of clients is fantastic and perfectly aligned to my experience. It’s particularly exciting that the role enables me to be client facing, delivering cutting-edge solutions, whilst also developing my team to be the very best they can be.”

Cortese takes charge of revenue at Singular
Marketing intelligence platform Singular has appointed Vince Cortese as its chief revenue officer. He will lead the company’s global sales team, helping expand the sales force domestically and internationally.

Cortese joins Singular from ad tech platform Kenshoo. Prior to that, he led sales at various levels in the marketing analytics industry at companies such as Adobe, IBM, Gartner, and Brandcast.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join Singular at this time as we are at the forefront of innovation in the marketing intelligence space,” said Cortese. “Singular not only has the best in class solution to help growth marketers meet their top line growth goals but our focus on customer centricity has been a major contributor to accelerating growth over the last few years. I am excited to be part of the team and help build out the company globally.”

Neuro-Insight selects Ginai as UK CEO
Shazia Ginai has been promoted to the role of UK CEO at Neuro-Insight, a neuromarketing and neuroanalytics company. In the role, which is effective as of 1 June, Ginai will be responsible for strengthening Neuro-Insight’s profile in the field of neuromarketing, as well as further expanding the business and its client portfolio.

Ginai joined the Neuro-Insight in 2017 as head of new business. Since then, the company has added a series of major brands to its client list, including The Telegraph, UKTV and Slimfast.

Before arriving at the company, she setup and led the global insight function at GHD. She preceded this with seven years at Proctor & Gamble, where she was responsible for designing and executing consumer research and building storytelling capability for their luxury fragrance and skincare brands.

Neuro-Insight’s previous UK CEO, Heather Andrew, will continue to work with the company as a non-executive director. Elsewhere, Mev Bertrand and Holly Jordon have been promoted to the roles of head of creative research and head of media effectiveness respectively.

‘’Having worked closely with Heather for the past 24 months, I am delighted to be stepping into the role of CEO at Neuro-Insight UK,” said Ginai. “The company has experienced astronomical growth under Heather’s direction, but while the rate of expansion has been significant (20 per cent year on year for the past four years), our targets remain ambitious. 

“It’s an exciting time for innovative research, particularly in the field of neuroscience, and we want to ensure Neuro-Insight remains right at the epicentre of this industry as it continues to grow and develop over the next few years.’’

Hillier joins Alorica to lead marketing
Customer experience solutions provider Alorica has added Colson Hillier to its executive leadership team in the role of chief marketing officer. He will be tasked with driving strategic planning, product development and execution of Alorica’s global marketing and communications initiatives.

Hillier boasts more than 20 years’ experience leading large-scale transformation in industries such as data services, ad tech, and fintech. Prior to joining Alorica, Hillier held numerous senior leadership roles at Verizon Wireless focused on new product development, big data Analytics, and digital marketing.

“Companies like Alorica have the unique opportunity to strengthen the connection between brands and their customers,” said Hillier. “I’m excited to be a part of the team and looking forward to making that happen by merging mind-blowing technology with vertical-specific commercial models so that brands can reach customers in the most impactful way not only now, but into the future.”