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.

eBay makes Board changes
Carol Hayles and Mohak Shroff have been added to the Board of Directors at eBay. At the same time, Jesse Cohn has stepped down from the Board and eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar has transitioned to the role of Director Emeritus.

Hayles currently serves on the Board of Directors of Webster Financial Corporation, where she is Chair of the Audit Committee, and on the Board of Directors of Blucora, where she is Chair of the Compensation Committee. She was previously the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CIT Group and held several management positions during her 24-year tenure at Citigroup, most recently as Deputy Controller.

“This is a very exciting time for eBay, and I am delighted to be joining the board supporting eBays best-in-class leadership team, to help execute the strategy to drive growth and build long-term value for shareholders,” said Hayles.

Shroff currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Engineering at LinkedIn. He has previously served in other engineering management positions during his 12-year tenure at LinkedIn and prior to that, as the Principal Software Engineer at Ariba.

“I am thrilled to be joining eBays Board of Directors at a pivotal time in its history,” said Shroff. “eBay is a tech pioneer and I am excited to support the team through the technology reimagination to accelerate innovation and help serve the evolving needs of eBays buyers and sellers.”

Liao becomes finance chief at OpenX
OpenX has appointed Mark Liao as its Chief Financial Officer, leading the company’s financial strategy, accounting, business intelligence, and revenue performance teams. He will be responsible for working with business leaders across the organisation on planning and forecasting, controls and risk management, business line profitability, and managing cash flow both upstream and downstream.

Liao arrives at OpenX from Amobee, where he served as CFO for over three years. He has also held CFO positions at Turn and iSocket, as well as several senior roles at Yahoo!, including Vice President of Business Operations and Vice President of Operations Finance for the Yahoo! Americas business.

“Having been in digital media or so long, I’ve crossed paths with OpenX countless times over the years, and I’ve always admired the team, products and culture they have built,” said Liao. “The company has always been a leader in programmatic, and we are in a unique position in the ecosystem, with a scaled, differentiated product. I’m excited to join the team and help the business grow.”

IAA UK selects Brown to take charge of diversity
Fou Brown has joined the International Advertising Association UK (IAA UK) in the newly created role of Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIBs) to define ongoing, positive change and support talent from underrepresented communities to have an inclusive voice in the UK ad industry.

Brown, a Global Business Director at MediaCom, will sit on the IAA Executive Committee and oversee a new Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging steering group at IAA UK, as part of its ongoing commitment to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the ad industry. Brown has also recently launched her own scholarship and mentoring programme for Black students in the UK, with an ambition to help this community fight systemic racism through positive law and government policy change. In addition, she has been announced as a member of the MediaCom Global Council for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging as part of a MediaCom and wider WPP initiative.

“There has been a lot of attention given to the diversity, inclusion and belonging topic recently. From that has come a lot of positive reflection and discussion by people, media companies and brands – this is a good thing. However, it is essential to move from conversation to action, and to do so whilst there is momentum. I am therefore, very excited to be part of the IAA UK, where they are passionate about creating a more supportive and fair environment for people from all backgrounds,” said Brown.

“My role is to help drive this change within the IAA itself, and then develop and execute a plan for sustained change that benefits the most vulnerable communities within our industry and beyond. I am confident that my role on the MediaCom Global Council will only help what I am trying to achieve here with the IAA – equality. I am proud to have this responsibility and opportunity – it is another step on this journey to an industry that reflects, and respects, the multicultural and diverse society we live in.”

Phillipson to lead EMEA demand at Smart
Smart AdServer, an independent ad tech platform, has hired Murray Phillipson as Vice President of Demand EMEA. Reporting to Chief Programmatic Officer David Pironon, he will strengthen relationships with agencies, trading desks, and direct advertisers across EMEA.

Phillipson has previously held senior demand side roles at Gumtree, OpenX, Sovrn, and, more recently, a senior role for BlisMedia.

“At a time when the value of digital advertising is under more scrutiny than ever before, I’m very pleased to be joining Smart AdServer, a company dedicated to transparency, which offers a comprehensive and efficient route to engaged audiences across key markets,” commented Phillipson.

Ingenuity gives Shaw director gig
Natalie Shaw has been appointed as Brand Director at Ingenuity London, a business development-focused agency. She will have a key strategic role supporting the Agency Selection division, growing Ingenuity’s expanding media offering. She will also have client direction responsibilities on the Lead Generation team, as well as sitting on the strategic leadership team. 

Shaw brings with her significant experience in the media space following nearly a decade at Mindshare where she held several positions, most recently Global Head of New Business.

“I have known Ingenuity since its infancy and have always kept a close eye on its expansion into new areas of business development,” said Shaw. “I’m excited to join the management team at this stage to really help steer the next chapter of its development and further boost its media capabilities.”

Childs and Shin take up business roles at Moloco
Cloud-based demand side platform (DSP) Moloco has chosen Paul Childs as its Vice President of Business Development and Thomas Shin as Vice President of US Business.

Childs will be focused on leading the business development function and working on building and expanding Moloco’s cloud-based real-time bidding (RTB) solutions. Most recently, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at mobile-first DSP Smadex for four years. Prior to this, he held sales, marketing, product, and regional leadership positions scaling businesses at Loopme, MoPub, Byyd, and InfoSpace.

“Advertiser’s across all segments are moving programmatic advertising capabilities in-house to gain control, transparency and improve performance,” said Childs. “Moloco’s cloud-based solutions, address these advertiser pain points and provide advertisers with opportunities to combine their first-party data and custom algorithms with programmatic advertising.”

Shin will lead Moloco’s current US business and expand into new segments and clientele. He brings 25 years of experience in digital marketing highlighted by 15 years at companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, and MediaMath.

“It’s a challenging time and landscape for marketers as they explore new ways to evolve. Moloco has quietly succeeded with a sharp mobile-focus, effective use of first-party data, and custom algorithms – it’s time to get the word out,” explained Shin. “Moloco’s clients have benefited from strong mobile performance and scale.  We will help many more marketers find new growth and help diversify their media investments for a healthier balance.”  

Yubo hires two for new London office
Benjamin Trigalou and Margaux Liquard have been added to the ranks at social networking app Yubo, as it opens up its London headquarters.

Trigalou, a former Product Lead at Waze, will lead design at Yubo. He and his team are tasked with launching features which enable users to interact in more creative and unique ways. During his five years at Waze, he built and grew a team of 17 UX designers and writers, as well as allocating roles and responsibilities across 11 different design teams within the business.

“What the platform has delivered in this busy industry is unique and exciting, and I am thrilled to be a part of the team to continue developing a highly engaging place for young, digital-savvy teams to socialise,” commented Trigalou.

Liquard takes up the role of Lead Safety Manager. She spent eight years at TripAdvisor, growing from specialising in fraud and leading the investigations team for business to overseeing TripAdvisor’s Trust & Safety team with a specialism in user-generated content and fraud detection techniques.

“The investment Yubo has made already in industry-leading technology to protect its young users is incredible, and I look forward to leading the investigation team in the new London office to keep this strong momentum and further cement Yubo as one of, if not the safest platform for teens in the UK and across the globe,” said Liquard.

Cawdery takes to the US helm of Incubeta
Incubeta, a digital marketing services group, has selected John Cawderry as its US Chief Executive Officer. He will unify the marketing solutions of Incubeta’s specialist brands, NMPi, Joystick and DQ&A, to progress the digital marketing maturity of US brands seamlessly across media, technology, and creative. He will also build on Incubeta’s strong existing global relationship with Google, and will have a focus on launching the Incubeta DQ&A proposition in the US.

Cawdery was previously Manager of Google Measurement Platform – Channel Strategy and Solutions. Here, he was responsible for designing and implementing Googles global partnership strategy. Having joined Google in 2008, his other former roles saw Cawdery build, lead, and launch Google’s enterprise analytics business and reseller channel in EMEA, and run Google’s Marketing Platform partner network in the Americas.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Incubeta and taking up the mantle of US CEO,” said Cawdery. “As an independent digital marketing services group, Incubeta has a unique proposition in the market in the way it seamlessly connects media, technology and creative through the union of NMPi, DQ&A and Joystick. The company has some aggressive growth plans and with the launch of new products and services in the pipeline, I’m very much looking forward to being part of this success story.”

Demandbase opts for Metcalfe as revenue chief
Alison Metcalfe has rejoined accounted-based marketing company Demandbase, taking up the role of Chief Revenue Officer upon her return. She will lead the company’s sales, advertising, and customer success teams, while partnering with marketing and product teams to exceed revenue goals.

Metcalfe arrives back at Demandbase after a seven-year stint at LiveRamp, where she was responsible for creating LiveRamp’s customer success function before moving on to building LiveRamp TV. Most recently, she held the role of Senior Vice President of Field Strategy, Productivity, and Partnerships. Previously, Metcalfe was a customer success leader at Demandbase.

“Returning to Demandbase, an organisation that has been at the forefront of B2B martech, as Chief Revenue Officer is an incredible opportunity,” said Metcalfe. “I’m thrilled to work with the company’s dynamic revenue-generating teams to empower our B2B customers to leverage ABM to scale for significant growth.”

Nichols to direct Adverity
Marketing data intelligence platform Adverity has appointed Wes Nichols as Non-executive Director to bolster its global growth trajectory and track record in the software industry.

An industry authority in predictive analytics, marketing, artificial intelligence/machine learning and digital transformation, he is a partner at March Capital and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Neustar, Airship, Persado, ActionIQ, and TrueCar, and is a Strategic Advisor to Snapchat.

“I’ve spent my career creating and scaling companies that enable data-driven decision-making, deployment automation and course-correction,” said Nichols. “Adverity continues to be a leader in helping businesses become more insight driven and agile with their data. This comes at a time when data is the world’s most valuable resource. How a company understands and analyses its data is instrumental to its customer relevance and success. I look forward to supporting Alex [Igelsböck] and the team and sharing my experience in driving global scale and growth of innovative software companies.”

Beeswax looks to Boisumeau to direct sales in EMEA
Audrey Boisumeau has been appointed as Sales Director, EMEA at ad tech platform Beeswax. Reporting to EMEA Commercial Director Cadi Jones, she is responsible for growing Beeswax in countries including France to help more businesses gain ownership and control over their programmatic advertising.

Joining from OpenX, Boisumeau brings over a decade of digital advertising experience gained in Paris, the UK and US.  She spent a year at OpenX, working with publishers to improve their yield, which followed a three-year stint at Inskin Media.

“I have spent the last five years helping UK-based companies to expand into Europe and more specifically in France, and am really pleased to join a company with such an established presence in France,” said Boisumeau. “Having worked in almost all the parts of the programmatic chain – from a trading desk to a supply-side platform – I am thrilled to join Beeswax that has developed one of the most robust buying technologies on the market.  With SPO, limited transparency, and reduced access to identity on both web and mobile, businesses need best-of-breed technology with flexibility, and customisation, alongside Beeswax’s fairer pricing model.”

Robinson to direct sales at TMWI
Marketing agency TMWI has enlisted Andrew Robinson as its UK Sales Director. He will spearhead sales in the region.

Robinson joins from Reach PLC, where he was Regional Commercial Director for eight years. Prior to this, he was Head of Agency Sales at Trinity Mirror and Commercial Director at Johnston Press.

“I was attracted to tmwi’s strength in data-led planning and creative,” said Robinson. “My broad media industry experience will stand me in good stead as I help the agency to execute market-leading campaigns for clients across a wide variety of sectors.”

Audience Store turns to Peck as sales director
Adam Peck has been chosen as UK Sales Director at Audience Store, a programmatic data activation firm. He will spearhead high impact personalised experiences for Audience Store.

Peck previously held the roles of Agency Group Head at Adobe and Director of Group Sales at TubeMogul.

“I can’t wait to bring Audience Store’s market leading technology and unparalleled programmatic offering and expertise across omni-channel buys to more clients,” said Peck. “At a time when innovative technological and creative solutions are needed more than ever, it’s important that we can communicate effectively as to how creative, media and data insights work most effectively together to drive business outcomes.”

Pendergrast selected to take charge of people at Outreach
Outreach, a sales engagement platform, has hired Leslie Pendergrast as its Chief People Officer, alongside five other strategic leadership hires.

Prior to joining Outreach, Pendergrast was the Chief People Officer at Code42. She has also held numerous senior human resources leadership positions at Datalogix, Sourcefire, and Citrix Systems.

“I am thrilled to be joining Outreach. From my first interview, even virtually, I could feel the enthusiasm for our customers, our product, and our company values. I thrive in a fast-paced, nimble environment that inspires rapid growth, and I am eager to help build people practices that allow us to scale quickly and effectively,” said Pendergrast.

Outreach has also brought in Victoria Grady as Vice President of Product Marketing, Rajit Joseph as Vice President of Product Management, Min Zhu as Vice President of Engineering, Ella Dillon as Vice President of Customer Success Strategy & Support, and Kara Bloomberg as Vice President of Professional Services & Training.

Widen names Ballew its CINO
Deanna Ballew has been promoted to the role of Chief Innovation Officer at Widen, a maker of digital asset management (DAM) software. She will lead Widen’s efforts to identify emerging businesses, conduct R&D on new technologies, and develop a long-term innovation strategy.

Ballew was previously Vice President of Product Development at Widen. Since joining the company in 2004, she has been instrumental in building Widen’s cloud-based DAM platform into a global market leader. After a decade working on Widen’s SaaS software and infrastructure, Ballew progressed into Director- and VP-level roles, where she modernised Widen’s product development methodology and paved the way to important breakthroughs.

“Innovation happens when you see a problem and then have the tenacity to work through that problem to find a better way. Every obstacle I encounter is an opportunity to innovate—whether that be with new processes, new skills, or bringing new businesses into the market,” said Ballew. “Being part of the growth at Widen provides me with plenty of obstacles. The community and culture that we have built allows me to embrace each of these as creative opportunities.”

Adams takes up marketing leadership role at Octane
Octane AI, ‘an all-in-one platform for engaging quizzes, data collection, and personalised Facebook Messenger and SMS automation’, has hired Heather Adams as its Vice President of Marketing. She will support the company’s next stage of growth and lead efforts to scale its internal marketing team, accelerate new customer acquisition and optimise and diversify its content engine to grow and evolve the brand.

Adams was most recently at DigitalOcean, where her focus was on customer acquisition. Previously, Adams held a number of marketing leadership roles at Wista, Shutterstock, Shoes.com (since acquired by Walmart), and Carbonite.

“From the first conversation, I could tell there was something very special in the making at Octane AI that I wanted to be a part of. The founding team shows a rare coupling of product vision and humility, along with a laser focus on team culture and customer empathy. Given this strong alignment with my personal and professional values alongside the huge market opportunity and momentum they have, the choice was very clear and I’m elated to be joining this team,” said Adams.

Workz hands CEO role to Malmros
Tor Malmros has been named as Chief Executive Officer at Workz Group, a mobile and IoT solutions provider. The move will see the company’s headquarters move from Dublin to Dubai.

Malmros is Co-founder of Workz and has been with the company since 1998, serving in various functions including Chief Financial Officer and Co-CEO. He has over 25 years of experience in telecoms for Nokia, Millicom, Mobifone, and Brightpoint.

Brad Taylor, Director and Co-founder, commented: “In a fast-growing IoT sector, it is critical we stay agile and are able to adapt to market developments. We see these strategic changes as an important step in our evolution from a telecoms manufacturer to a mobile solutions provider. We believe that the focus on our core competencies will, ultimately, offer the greatest value to our clients and their digitalisation initiatives. Looking forward, we now feel we are in the best position to continue to grow globally and develop market-leading products and services.”