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.

Derbyshire joins the Merkle team 
Customer experience management company, Merkle has appointed Stephen Derbyshire to the position of Adobe Experience Platform practice lead for Merkle EMEA and dentsu’s CXM Service Line.

Derbyshire spoke at the Adobe Summit on the 28th April 2021, discussing improving customer experience and delivering growth through Adobe Experience Platform in partnership with Signify for their Philips Hue consumer lighting brand. He has been with Merkle for three years, heading up and  expanding the marketing technologies practice in the UK.

“Adobe Experience Platform represents a strategic shift by Adobe from integrating acquired technology to engineering their own best-in-class platform. This single platform will ultimately replace multiple tools within the Adobe stack and enable brands to increase the speed, relevance, and reach of personalisation across the total customer experience; this aligns well with Merkle’s vision for the future of CXM. Over the next twelve months, we have ambitious targets for scaling our team to meet demand whilst delivering service excellence” said Derbyshire. 

The Specialist Works promotes Brown 
Independent media services agency, The Specialist Works has promoted Verity Brown to the role of Managing Director.

Brown, who joined The Specialist Works in 2015 to lead the planning team, has been Managing Partner for the past four years, successfully bringing in high-value new business including Frasers Group, Ovo Energy, Toolstation, Hastings Direct and Autotrader. With a career spanning 14 years, Brown honed her craft at Starcom, Spark Foundry, PHD and Carat, working with clients including P&G, Kelloggs, McCain, and Warner Bros.

“We have the best and most engaged talent in the industry and we are on a mission to combine our energy with our evidence-led approach to turn ambition into success for dynamic CMOs looking for their next phase of fast growth” said Brown. 

Ward joins team at VidMob 
Platform for Intelligent Creative, VidMob has announced that SaaS marketing leader Andrea Ward is joining its leadership team as Chief Marketing Officer.

Ward has more than two decades of marketing experience at some of the largest and most successful SaaS companies and a track record of leading high performing global marketing teams. Ward most recently led Adobe’s enterprise marketing  team, after joining from Magento (acquired by Adobe), where she served as Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to Magento, she served as Global Vice President of Marketing at Oracle, where she launched the Oracle Marketing Cloud business and led the unit’s global marketing function.

“VidMob’s Intelligent Creative platform is empowering marketers and creative teams with data and insights that measurably improve creative performance and strengthen brands. I am thrilled to be joining a company with such an amazing culture and ground-breaking technology that is empowering creatives to be more agile, efficient and deliver higher performing work at scale” said Ward.

Inskin Media makes two new hires 
High impact specialists, Inskin Media has appointed MJ Chua as the Sales Director for Asia, and Trina Lim as their new Senior Commercial Director.

Formerly Regional Sales Lead at Southeast Asia’s leading ‘superapp’, Grab, Chua is an experienced sales and partnerships leader with an enviable track record in the marketing and advertising industry; skilled in digital strategy, integrated marketing and data analysis.

“Inskin Media is leading the charge when it comes to offering unique and independently verified predictive attention estimates, across formats and devices. I can’t wait to spread this message in the region and help clients boost the success of their campaigns” said Chua.

Most recently Senior Account Manager at independent advertising platform, Amboee, Lim boasts a decade of experience in the marketing industry.

“With user experience Inskin Media’s key focus, I can’t wait to help its clients deliver campaigns which achieve both optimal user experience and commercial impact for advertisers” said Lim. 

Pilot Fish Media promote Evara 
Digital marketing agency, Pilot Fish Media have appointed Paff Evara as ‘Head of Agency.

Having joined Pilot Fish in January 2021 as Paid Ads Director, Evara will take over from Daniella Karaoglan from June 2021. 

Evara, who uses they/them pronouns, will be taking over from Daniella, as they begin work on repositioning Pilot Fish Media to focus on what they are best at, which is combining their technical prowess with their creativity to deliver amazing results. As the first openly queer person of colour to take the helm at Pilot Fish Media, Paff aims to put diversion and inclusion at the forefront of the agencys agenda going forward.

“Were a small, but mighty team with such a diverse range of skills, experiences, and perspectives. Everyone is so hard-working and takes real pride in what they do. Whether it be a mock-up ad example in a proposal to a full-funnel Facebook Ads campaign. The same level of strategic thought and creative nous is put into every piece of work that gets the PFM stamp” said Evara.

Aisle Rocket appoints Chief Creative Officer 
Marketing agency, Aisle Rocket has announced that its hired Aaron Noffsinger as its new Chief Creative Officer.

Noffsinger brings to Aisle Rocket 20+ years of experience connecting brands to people. Before joining Aisle Rocket he was an EVP Group Creative Director at Edelman, where he spearheaded the development of innovative creative and production processes that generated award-winning work and significant growth for his clients. A visual storyteller at heart, Noffsinger brings to life the human side of brand storytelling through the creation of integrated campaign solutions that provoke action and drive serious results.

“I’ve spent my entire career creating integrated ideas that punch well above their media weight. I am excited to join such a dynamic team and to help continue the Aisle Rocket story. What attracted me to the role was the marriage of deep analytics and data experience with a team that has delivered world class creative work for some of the worlds most recognized brands. Many organisations speak to the marriage of creativity, media, and data but Aisle Rocket is really doing it” said Noffsinger.

Xandr recruits Doosh
AT&T’s data-enabled technology platform, Xandr has announced the appointment of Ammar Jawad Doosh as Senior Director, EMEA Product Management, as well as five recent new hires for Xandr’s marketplace team.

Doosh brings extensive industry experience and expertise from his previous roles at The Trade Desk, Expedia Group, Radiant Worlds and Ubisoft. He joins Xandr with ten years of experience under his belt including a focus on buy-side marketing and programmatic advertising. He also brings strong domain expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence, increasingly important topics for the advertising industry.

Grant joins The Kite Factory 
Independent media agency, The Kite Factory has announced the appointment of Niki Grant to the newly-created role of Director of Search.

Grant will build a dedicated search team to support existing clients’  growing needs and to enhance The Kite Factory’s proposition by introducing more advanced technology and data analytics overlayed with strategic thinking.

“Being the first Director of Search at The Kite Factory is great honour, and I can’t wait to help the team expand their business further into search. I look forward to beginning my new role in June and building a talented team to provide our clients with the content, visibility and discoverability which will help they meet their growth targets” said Grant.

Roberts and Greener join the Ve Global team 
eCommerce tech provider, Ve Global has appointed Nick Roberts as Marketing Director.

With over eight years’ experience driving high-growth demand generation programmes and marketing plans, Roberts joins Ve Global from crowd testing company Global App Testing, where he led the marketing team for over four years building acquisition and brand awareness and delivering revenue for the business’ SaaS solution. Prior to this, Roberts was the Senior Marketing Manager at DefenseStorm, where he was responsible for all aspects of inbound marketing, as well as developing customer, product, and event marketing campaigns. 

Also joining the team is former WhosOnLocation Product Marketing Manager Rhian Greener, who will take up the same role at Ve Global later this month.

Before pivoting to product marketing, Rhian spent over four years in creative copywriting for AnalogFolk, where she wrote editorial content for brands including Sainsbury’s, Costa Coffee and Booking.com.