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.

McCann elevates Powers to president
Suzanne Powers has been promoted to Global President of IPG’s McCann Worldgroup. She will also continue in her as Chief Strategy Officer, expanding her global responsibilities to drive the McCann brand and business both inside and outside of the organisation.

Powers joined McCann in 2013 from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where she served as Global Strategy Officer and led the global development of the agency. Before that, she led global brand strategy at TBWA for more than 10 years.

“As we work together to navigate the impact of transformation currently underway in the global marketplace, Suzannes rich enterprise knowledge and her ability to interpret and develop new models of innovation will be critical for Worldgroup and essential as we seek to accelerate our ability to create growth opportunities for our clients,” said Bill Kolb, incoming CEO of McCann Worldgroup.

McCarthy joins Criteo as CMO
Ad tech company Criteo has named Brendan McCarthy as its Chief Marketing Officer. He will lead the marketing and communications teams across Criteos global markets and will be an integral part of Criteos transformation and innovation strategy to a commerce media platform.

McCarthy arrives at Criteo with nearly 20 years of strategic marketing and communications experience. In his most recent role as Senior Vice President and Head of Communications and Product Marketing for Nielsen Global Media, he was responsible for all aspects of the divisions global marketing and communications organisation including public relations, growth marketing, product positioning, client and internal communications, thought leadership, and reputation and crisis management. Before that, he led Edelman’s global media relations efforts.

“Im inspired by Criteos growth mindset and looking forward to the opportunity to position communications around the companys new vision and strategy,” said McCarthy. “Criteo has an exciting future and the talented team Ive joined has an incredibly compelling story – all underlining the value of Criteos transformative technology.”

ActiveCampaign makes board and exec additions
Cindy Guerra Robbins has joined the Board of Directors at customer experience automation platform ActiveCampaign, while the company has added Dutta Satadip as its first Chief Customer Officer.

Guerra Robbins, a former Salesforce President and Chief People Officer, becomes the company’s first independent board member. At Salesforce, she built a strong corporate focus on supporting employee success to empower company growth and took steps to close the gender pay gap cross-company.

“ActiveCampaign is pioneering the customer experience automation market with its CXA platform,” said Guerra Robbins. “Ive been impressed by the business and culture that Jason and his team have built. The opportunity in front of the company is tremendous and I see ways that I can collaborate and add value with my experience serving as a significant contributor to the board. The companys put people first ideals resonate strongly with me. I truly believe that creating an equitable, diverse workplace helps create an even better platform.”

Satadip will be responsible for ensuring customer success for all 120,000 ActiveCampaign customers, with a specific focus on improving customer satisfaction, increasing engagement, and strengthening support. He joins from Pinterest, where he spent three years leading their global customer success and operations team. Prior to that, he spent six years at Google and has also served in management roles at Confirmit and Hewlett-Packard.

“The fact that ActiveCampaign is a hyper-growth company highlights the financial benefits of making and keeping our valued customers happy,” said Satadip. “Im especially excited about the opportunities to drive customer success on a global scale.”

Gim promoted to CMSO at Rapp
Omnicom’s Rapp Worldwide has elevated John Gim to the position of Global Chief Marketing Sciences Officer. He will remain focused on his key clients and leading Rapp’s Marketing Sciences Center of Excellence but will also be responsible for leading and bringing together Rapp’s pool of marketing sciences experts.

During his tenure at Rapp, Gim has served in various roles across the organisation’s analytics and marketing sciences teams, worked with a variety of clients, and helped Rapp secure victories in various data driven award shows and data science competitions. Before Rapp, he led analytics teams at agencies including Epsilon and TBWA\Chiat\Day.

“Its a privilege to lead our practice forward, as we aim to help accelerate transformation for our clients,” Gim said. “As the landscape of advertising and data continually and rapidly changes, its a necessity now, more than ever, for brands to evolve and keep pace. Im immensely proud of RAPPs talented people, our heritage and all that weve built and accomplished, but am all the more excited for our future – as we aim to push the boundaries in marketing sciences innovation and build stronger, more valuable partnerships with our clients.”

LiveXLive turns to Williams on talent partnerships
Roe Williams has been hired as Global Head of Talent and Artist Partnerships at livestream and on-demand audio platform LiveXLive.

In 2016, Williams founded Global Think Entertainment (GTE), a talent procurement and consulting agency. Under the GTE umbrella, she most recently served as General Manager of the Art@War record label. In 2010, she served as Managing Partner and Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at KWL Enterprises.

“My career trajectory has always been about artists first, which is very much the centerpiece of LiveXLives flywheel philosophy in all of the platforms they operate. The ability to join a team with this level of skill, creativity and future thinking made it an easy choice for me,” Williams commented. “The music and entertainment industries are in the midst of a revolution. LiveXLive is leading the way not only in streaming live and pay per view, but in multiple innovative and original formats from awards shows to podcasts to virtual festivals. I am joining to help keep the company ahead of the creative and cultural curves in entertainment and music by partnering authentically with artists, audiences and brands.”

Kaplan takes charge of Kinetic
WPP out-of-home agency Kinetic has announced Keith Kaplan as its Global Chief Executive Officer. He plans to roll out his vision focused on people, offerings, and innovation that include investment in the professional development of the Kinetic’s teams, development of new tools and offerings, and innovative ways for agencies and brands to connect with people as OOH technologies advance.

Kaplan helped build a global ad network at Adconion (now Amobee), led Global Client and Agency Development for Yahoo, and spearheaded global monetisation for King Digital Entertainment, a division of Activision.

“I have always passionately believed that out-of-home is a severely undervalued medium with an extremely bright future. However, the world has never given a reason for out-of-home to accelerate its pace of change until now,” said Keith Kaplan, Global CEO, Kinetic. “The industry is on the verge of a major transformation, and my priority is to put us at the centre of it all. Ive also known the Kinetic team for a long time, and that experience tells me that they are ready for the revolution.”

Tommy opts for Strachan to lead LA
Dougal Strachan has been appointed as Senior Vice President for Los Angeles to digital creative agency Tommy. He will lead the agency’s Los Angeles’ team of digital designers, developers, producers, strategists, and creatives, supported by a global accounts team to continue the growth of Tommy’s presence in the US.

Formerly Senior Vice President of Marketing at Twentieth Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company, Strachan boasts a 20-year career in digital marketing and brand strategy for the entertainment industry. He was instrumental in the digital marketing campaigns for franchises such as Star Wars, Avatar, X-Men, and Ice Age and, more recently, developed and led the innovative international marketing campaigns for break-out hits such as Kingsman, Deadpool, and Bohemian Rhapsody.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Tommy’s body of work over the years and I share their passion for disruptive thinking and experimenting with technology to bring ideas and storytelling to life,” said Strachan. “The Tommy team have a great reputation within the industry and I feel privileged to be a part of that and excited to work with this talented team to grow the business”

Thompson and Wooller arrive at Croud
Croud, a digital marketing agency, has hired David Thompson as its Chief Technology Officer and Sophie Wooller as Director of Digital Transformation for its Serpico in-housing division.

Thompson’s almost three-decade-long career in technology spans the media, healthcare, mobile, transport, and aero-military industries, where he held senior positions at NXP and Hewlett Packard, as well as board-level and CXO positions in start-up organisations. He has also founded two VC-backed product and media companies, conducting business throughout Europe, Australia, the US, and Japan.

“Croud has proven itself to be forward thinking when it comes to technology, even building its own proprietary tech platform – Croud Control – to manage its network of 2,500 Croudies,” said Thompson. “I’m looking forward to building on and guiding the technical direction of the agency as we invest even more heavily into the technology and data solutions, and advancing the way both the agency and our in-housing business Serpico operate.”

Wooller will be responsible for spearheading the development of Serpico by Croud, which launched in May 2019. She was most recently Head of UK at The Programmatic Advisory and, prior to this, ran data and technology products and services at iProspect. She also previously worked on the global Dentsu Aegis business strategy team.

“I’m excited to take Serpico by Croud to the next level, using my experience in a wide range of digital disciplines to help brands on their in-housing journeys – whether they are looking for training and consultancy, or access to on-demand talent in order to effectively manage the peaks and troughs of demand that we have seen exemplified this year,” said Wooller.

Cavai welcomes Holst Eckbo as CMO
Janicke Holst Eckbo has joined conversational advertising cloud Cavai as its first Global Chief Marketing Officer.

Holst Eckbo was most recently Market Development Director at Schibsted Media Group, where she ran a department which positioned Schibsted Marketing Services as the preferred partner for advertisers and media agencies. There, she headed up insights & analytics, agency and programmatic development, and product and B2B marketing. Prior to this, she was Managing Director, Norway at Amnet and Commercial Director, EMEA at MediaMath. Holst Eckbo has also held senior roles at Twitter and Fandom (formerly Wikia).

“Conversational advertising is one of the few unexplored territories in media. There is so much potential for brands to boost engagement and connections with their audiences – understanding customer wants and needs – and Cavai’s technology enables advertisers to do just that,” Holst Eckbo commented. “My goal will be to communicate the power of conversational advertising in general and Cavai’s platform in particular – and take it to global markets. I anticipate significant growth over the next 12 months and can’t wait to get started.”

West to lead partnership initiatives at Vibes
Mobile marketing platform Vibes has recruited Patrick West as its Vice President of Global Partnerships & Alliances.

West arrives at Vibes with almost two decades of executive leadership and marketing experience. Most recently, he served as a Director and Global Partnership Lead at Adobe, where he helped enterprise brand marketers and agencies establish innovative partnership models.

“From my experience, consumers today want to be heard, understood and valued,” said West. “Mobile continues to allow for that exchange in a highly personal way we havent seen before in marketing as content and context continue to converge. It enables brands to have a real relationship with their customers while treating them as real people. At the moment, most brands are just scratching that surface of whats possible. At Vibes, my mission will be to go beyond the tactics and help organisations build a true mobile marketing ecosystem that delivers valued brand relationships.”

Tappx makes host of hires and promotions
Since March 2020, mobile ad tech firm Tappx has made 17 hires and six promotions, increasing the size of its workforce by 60 per cent. The most recent of those are the promotion of Aitor Ruiz Fernández and the hires of Ricado Guimaraes, Claudia Michaelsson, and Vikramaditya Singh.

Ruiz Fernández has been promoted to Director of SSP Operations from Head of Programmatic Demand. His goal is to maximise revenue whilst ensuring best-in-class customer service quality for publishers and advertisers alike.

Guimaraes has joined Tappx as Demand Business Developer, having previously worked at AT&T’s Xandr. He will focus on expanding the company’s US market share.

Michaelsson has arrived as Senior Supply Manager and Singh as Performance Growth Manager. Both previously worked at Billy Mobile. Singh will focus on diversifying and increasing the number of revenue sources from mobile content areas and, together with Michaelsson, will help to onboard, integrate, and configure new publishers and live media sources.

Frei named CEO at Swaarm
Swaarm, a Berlin-based performance-based marketing platform, has appointed David Frei as its Chief Executive Officer. He will leverage his experience in consulting and technology sales to help drive Swaarm’s growth.

Frei most recently served as Senior Manager of Business Development at Here Technologies.

“The Swaarm founding team has built world-class performance-based tracking and optimization technology that offers the best value for money platform in the market, and our first clients are already seeing success,” said Frei. “With the recent seed funding of EUR 800K by serial investors Ilona van Megen and Rudolf van Megen, Supervisory Board Member of DE-CIX Group AG, we have the trust of Germanys start up pioneers and the ability to accelerate the business. My goal moving forward is to bring Swaarm to the global market to enable more and more clients to benefit from the power of automation and to help them make each action simpler, faster and better.”

Behave appoints Westoby to direct on research
Dr Nikki Westoby has been hired as Research Director at behavioural consultancy Behave, a subsidiary of behavioural planning agency Total Media Group. She will lead the development of the consultancy’s research and provide a layered approach to human understanding for both clients and new business prospects across Total Media.

Most recently, Westoby was Director of Neuroscience at Nielsen, where she was in chare of research undertaken by the European Consumer Neuroscience and Behavioural Insights team. She also co-founded the Secure Perception Research consultancy to conduct research for the Bank of England and helped establish Kantar’s Consumer Neuroscience team.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Behave in this genuinely exciting new role,” said Westoby. “The range of behavioural tools available to us present a world of opportunities for businesses and can help them overcome any number of challenges. It’s my aim to ensure behave stays at the cutting edge to continue to deliver best in class results for clients.”

Hussey to lead creative operations at Jaywing
Integrated agency Jaywing has announced Nick Hussey as its Creative Operations Director. He will be responsible for integrating internal processes across the recently restructured business to ensure its clients receive the highest quality, innovative creative campaigns, and seamless production.

Formerly Chief Operations Officer at Forever Beta, Hussey also held the role of Creative Operations Director at McCann Manchester, where he led the operational growth of Aldi. He is also one of the original members of Mother.

“I’m delighted to be joining the fantastic talent at Jaywing and I’m looking forward to this new challenge,” said Hussey. “Jaywing has a strong reputation in the industry and I’m thrilled to work with a company that has such an impressive service offering.”