The mobile and digital marketing industry is ever-changing, and that applies to the people as much as the technology. Movers & Shakers is our monthly round-up of the hottest hires in the industry…
Bizon to head up new team at Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics has promoted of Annika Bizon to Marketing & Omni Channel Director for Samsung UK & Ireland – leading its Marketing and Omni Channel teams which have been united into one new function. The newly-formed team will be responsible for delivering consistent, best-in-class activity across all touchpoints, including online retail, call centres and marketing.
Bizon joined Samsung UK & Ireland as Omni Channel Strategy Director of its Mobile eXperience (MX) division in June 2021, bringing with her a wealth of business and leadership experience, including senior positions at 20th Century Fox and Three UK as Go-To-Market and Channel Management Director.
In her time at Samsung UK & Ireland, she has made an immediate impact, delivering and accelerating category-defining strategies and executions across Omni Channel.
She said: “I am so proud to begin this new chapter. This is an opportunity to unite two great teams who will work to deliver on our plans and commercial priorities. This structural change will help us reach the next level in performance while ensuring we are future-proofed and firmly remain innovators in our industry.”
Salmon heads to Snap from Channel 4
Snap has hired Matt Salmon as Commercial Director for its UK Enterprise business. He will be based in London, reporting to Ed Couchman, UK General Manager. As part of his role, Salmon will lead the UK vertical and category teams, building on Snap’s strong revenue growth and deepening relationships with key advertisers and their agencies.
He brings over 20 years’ years experience in sales and marketing to the role. Most recently, he was Sales Director at Channel 4, where he led the creation of a new commercial strategy to diversify Channel 4's advertising revenues and accelerate digital transformation. Prior to this he was Group Commercial Director at Hearst Magazines.
He said: “I am delighted to be joining Snap Inc at this key moment in their expansion. Snapchat offers a hugely exciting and innovative opportunity for brands and I am looking forward to leveraging my broadcast experience to further develop our existing commercial partnerships and bring new clients to the platform.”
Keane-Dawson appointed CEO of Time Out Media
Time Out Group has appointed Mary Keane-Dawson as CEO of Time Out Media Based in London and reporting into Time Out Group CEO Chris Ohlund, Keane-Dawson will lead Time Out’s Media business globally, managing its commercial and content teams, implementing a new consumer- and partner-focussed business strategy, whilst driving efficiency and improving economic returns.
With 25 years’ experience, Keane-Dawson was most recently Group CEO of influencer marketing platform Takumi, and prior to that was European MD of Neo@Ogilvy. Previous positions include Interim CEO at award-winning design and UX agency Collective London; MD at Steak Media; and Worldwide MD at Spafax, leading its global commercial capability growth before selling to WPP Group after leading a successful MBO.
She said: “This is my dream job! I am excited and very committed to be building the Time Out Media business and delivering a fantastic experience to our audiences, advertisers, partners and our truly amazingly talented creative, technical and commercial teams. Time Out is an iconic media brand, and I am honoured and humbled to be joining this business.”
Gorillas appoints Calvert to CMO role
Rapid grocery delivery service Gorillas has appointed Luanne Calvert as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Prior to joining Gorillas, Calvert held senior positions at Virgin, Google, Walmart, LVMH’s Fendi brand and Moleskine.
In her new role, she will be heading the global marketing team and be part of the management board, report directly to Founder and CEO, Kagan Sümer. She said: “Luanne has shown countless times how to create and develop successful brands in fast-growth sectors through innovative ideas. Her boldness and courage to try new things reflects the spirit of Gorillas in the best way. This mindset, paired with her incredible experience in the tech, retail and start-up field is what makes Luanne the perfect fit to further develop our brand and customer experience.”
Stint
Student work app Stint has hired Harry Lang as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Lang will lead, grow and mature the marketing team with a focus on building brand strategy and brand awareness, improving use of analytics and reporting, and introducing an affiliate marketing and partnerships strategy.
With over 22 years in the marketing sector, Lang holds extensive experience in omnichannel marketing strategy, growth and brand development for global online gaming operators and digital brands.
He joins Stint from Buzz Bingo, Britain’s biggest bingo business, where he was Marketing Director, responsible for developing and overseeing its marketing strategy. Lang previously held senior integrated marketing positions at several of the world’s largest online betting and gaming operators including Genting Casinos, Bwin and Pinnacle Sports. He began his career at Saatchi & Saatchi and has worked on award-winning advertising campaigns for global brands such as Budweiser, Sony Playstation and Penguin Books.
Lang’s appointment follows a year of strong growth by Stint, which has now worked with over 1,400 hospitality businesses, including leading high street brands such as Chipotle and Chilango and high-end clubs and restaurants like Annabels and The Wolseley. As of this month, the company has over 115,000 students signed up to the platform and operates in over 32 towns and cities across the UK.
Stint connects hospitality operators with their pool of students, who want short, flexible shifts, to help with the 2–3-hour peak periods each day. These students lend a helping hand to permanent staff during the busiest moments, ensuring that businesses have the right number of staff every hour of the day and do not have to compromise customers or costs.
“Stint is a highly ambitious business changing hospitality for the better,” said Lang. “Having watched its growth closely, Sol and Sam have given me an amazing opportunity to lead the marketing team as we grow the brand and expand both the client base and student workforce.”
McKay takes up CMO role at Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet has announced the appointment of Susan McKay as International Chief Marketing Officer, based in London. She will lead marketing and communications for Dun & Bradstreet’s International business, which incorporates the UK and Ireland, European markets, India, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as the company’s global worldwide network. She will oversee the marketing and communications strategy across International and within country markets, including brand and traditional and digital marketing initiatives.
She joins Dun & Bradstreet from multinational professional services firm TMF Group, where she was Global Chief Marketing Officer with responsibility across 85 countries and 120 offices for all marketing capabilities. Prior to that, she spent 15 years in Asia, where she held roles in Malaysia for TMF and in Singapore for Wolters Kluwer.
Neeraj Sahai, President, International, Dun & Bradstreet said: “Susan has a great track record of building and deploying high-performing marketing teams to support business transformation, across financial services, professional services, and the technology sector. I am confident she will be a great asset to Dun & Bradstreet and we’re all excited to have her onboard.”
Social mobility charity appoints former OVO marketing chief as CMO
Social mobility charity Speakers for Schools has appointed Dan Walsh as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Walsh arrives from OVO Energy, where he was Head of Brand Marketing for SSE.
Prior to that Walsh was Head of Marketing for BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra before becoming Head of Marketing for the BBC Central Brand. Having worked in marketing for 20 years, he has also worked for global brands such as Red Bull and YouTube.
Walsh joins Speakers for Schools as it rapidly scales, with its headcount growing from 14 to 115 in less than two years. The charity has also acquired two organisations in the past six months, vInspired and Fledglink, offering volunteering opportunities and early careers support.
Walsh will work with the charity’s CEO to fully integrate these new platforms into Speakers for Schools’ existing offering, which is primarily focused on delivering virtual work experience placements and inspirational talks to state schools from its roster of influential figures.
With his experience engaging youth audiences, a key focus for Walsh will be developing the visibility of Youth Card: the charity’s free app it launched last year, offering thousands of work experience placements, careers advice, discounts, volunteering programmes, amongst much more to young people across the UK.
Walsh said: “Having grown up in Liverpool and attended a state school, I can deeply relate to the barriers many young people face as they struggle to kick start a life for themselves against a backdrop of few opportunities, which is exactly what Speakers for Schools has set out to alleviate. Its work to provide all young people with incredible work experience and career inspiration irrespective of background or where they live is vital and I look forward to helping the charity grow.”
Craddock to CMO at Tempcover
Short-term car insurance specialist Tempcover has appointed Adam Craddock as CMO. Craddock has 16 years of marketing experience, working across various technical disciplines, starting his career as a developer, before moving into conversion rate optimisation and spending the last seven years working in paid media.
In his previous position as Chief Media Officer at digital marketing agency RocketMill, he helped grow the team from just four to over 100, winning various awards. In his new role, Craddock will be responsible for implementing industry-leading marketing strategies to accelerate growth and increase market share.
“Digital marketing has been fundamental to Tempcover’s sustained and measurable growth in the face of adverse economic conditions,” said Tempcover CEO, Alan Inskip. “Adam’s impressive industry experience and proven track record will help elevate Tempcover’s digital marketing capability and performance to the next level.”
Tempcover is the UK’s original InsurTech company, and since 2006 has been specialising in short-term vehicle insurance policies that last anywhere between one hour and 28-days, offering flexible short-term cover for the time drivers actually need, with no long-term commitment or auto-renewals.
Sjetty joins Calm as Chief Purpose Officer
Mental wellness brand Calm has appointed New York Times best-selling author, podcaster, former-monk, and purpose coach Jay Shetty as Chief Purpose Officer. As Chief Purpose Officer, Shetty will play a critical role for Calm for Business by developing exclusive content for employees, helping to build mental resilience. He will also drive conversations to bring mental health to the forefront of the employee experience and workplace culture.
Shetty will join Calm’s daily meditation content roster with his first daily content series, The Daily Jay; support Calm for Business to help organizations bring mindfulness to the forefront of workplace culture; and further Calm’s mission to get the world to view mental health as health.
Shetty’s daily content series, The Daily Jay, offers seven-minute daily mindfulness sessions, including an uplifting monologue, short meditation and actionable life insight. The series is designed to help people build a practice of caring for their mental health and unlock their full life potential. The Daily Jay is available now exclusively on Calm.
“With my new daily series on Calm, I am bringing my meditation, storytelling, wisdom and action into one place for the first time, and it’s powerful,” said Shetty. “My hope for The Daily Jay is to rethink how we implement meditation into our daily lives. It’s not something you have to do alone in a quiet space. You can take your practice into the busyness of your life, that’s the beauty of it.”
Muriel appointed CMO of GroupM Spain
GroupM has named Sebastian Muriel as GroupM Spain’s CEO, effective 14 February 2022. Muriel joins GroupM from Telefonica, where he has held the role of Global Director Customer Experience/Novum since 2016.
As GroupM Spain’s CEO, Muriel will focus on developing a highly diverse and fully inclusive culture, across all agencies, in which the team of 700 will thrive within the EMEA region. He will drive strong commercial outcomes through his people leadership skills, championing change and transformation to deliver results-based outcomes for clients, which ultimately make advertising work better for people.
Muriel will play a role in contributing to and leveraging WPP Spain’s business capabilities, by boosting close collaboration between all agencies within the network to make a more compelling end-to-end offer to existing and future clients in Spain.
Leveraging his background as a Senior Telecommunications Engineer, with solid experience in digital business and the transformation strategy of large corporations, Muriel will focus on implementing the most up-to-date resources and technologies across GroupM Spain.
He said: “I am delighted to join GroupM Spain and enthusiastic to immerse myself into the business. I relish this challenge as an opportunity for development being a curious and open-minded avid learner. I am invested in the team’s growth as well as my own as a leader and business executive. I recognise and admire the performance of the current team, especially within the challenging environment of the global pandemic. At the same time, I am convinced that I will contribute to taking GroupM Spain to the next level with continued focus on responsible and inclusive media investment within the industry.”
Awin appoints Lloyd as its first Chief Customer Officer
Global affiliate marketing platform, Awin, has appointed its first Chief Customer Officer (CCO), David Lloyd, to support the company’s customer-centric vision.
In the role, Lloyd will be responsible for overseeing every aspect of Awin’s customer experience, leading the company’s Regional Managers and Global Publisher, Account Management, Operations, New Business, Marketing and PR teams.
With previous roles at Alibaba and Google, he brings valuable digital marketing, retail, and tech experience to support Awin’s ambitions. He joined Alibaba in 2016, quickly progressing to UK and Nordics Managing Director, and then to General Manager UK, Netherlands, and Nordics. He David played a crucial role in growing the group's operations in the region, working with hundreds of European brands across eCommerce, payments and cloud.
Awin’s decision to appoint a Chief Customer Officer comes after a successful first year under CEO Adam Ross’ leadership, with the company generating €14bn in revenue for its advertiser clients, and achieving double digit growth in every month of 2021.
“After an extensive search, we’re delighted to welcome David as our fourth board member,” said Awin CEO, Adam Ross. “As I outlined when I became CEO, I have ambitious growth plans for Awin and the value we offer our customers. An integral part of this is building on our customer-centric approach to make sure it’s something that is truly embodied by our staff and felt by our customers at every touchpoint with Awin. While David’s notable background speaks for itself, what really impressed us was his understanding of what Awin wants to achieve and his ideas and motivation to contribute to that in what will be a pivotal role.”
Lloyd joins Awin’s Executive Board alongside Chief Executive Officer Adam Ross, Chief Technology Officer Peter Loveday and Chief Financial Officer Virpy Richter.
Ozone Project promotes three
Digital advertising platform, The Ozone Project, has announced three new promotions in its commercial team, with Daryl Manian and Bill Dennett appointed as Agency Sales Hub Leads, Frances Lazenby moving into the new role of Head of Strategic Solutions and James Mapley becoming Senior Client Services Manager.
Prior to their promotions to Agency Sales Hub Leads, Manian and Dennett both held the position of Senior Agency Sales Partner. Now, each will take responsibility for revenue delivery and relationship management with their hub colleagues across their respective agency patches. Manian will oversee all agencies within Omnicom Media Group, and Dennett – operating out of Ozone’s Manchester office – will be focused on the expansion of the platform’s regional footprint.
Frances Lazenby moves into the newly created role of Head of Strategic Solutions, having previously been Ozone’s Senior Sales Strategist – a position held since joining from MediaCom in November 2019. Reporting directly to Ozone’s CRO, Craig Tuck, Lazenby will take responsibility for leading on high-level, integrated pitches working alongside the full agency and client sales team, identifying new ways to bring the platform’s unique capabilities to bear for customers.
Having joined Ozone in November 2019, James Mapley has been promoted to the role of Senior Client Services Manager, in a team tasked with delivering best-in-class service and expertise in measurement, campaign delivery and format innovation.
“We’re delighted to announce these four latest promotions, not just because they are incredibly well deserved, but because they are true testament to Ozone’s desire to elevate the great talent we already have within our business when we can,” The Ozone Project Chief Revenue Officer, Craig Tuck. “Frances, James, Daryl and Bill match their commercial acumen with great enthusiasm, while exemplifying the values we look for across the business. I couldn’t be happier for them all, and look forward to seeing them thrive in their new roles.”
Other moves…
M&C Saatchi London has promoted Business Director, Christian Davis, to a newly created Managing Partner position. Davis will now join M&C Saatchi’s management team, reporting to CEO, Camilla Kemp. Working alongside two existing Managing Partners, Annabel Mackie and Chris Jones, he will help the agency achieve its vision and ambition to create change for clients, their customers and society, as well as actively contributing towards shaping and implementing its future strategy and capabilities. Davis began his agency career in 2007 and has previously held account handling positions at TBWA, Billington Cartmell and HeyHuman, amongst others.
Wavemaker has appointed former Lucky Generals CEO Katie Lee as Chief Growth Officer. Lee will sit on the agency’s executive leadership team, reporting to Paul Hutchison, Chief Executive Officer and will be responsible for new business and bringing the agency’s positive provocation mission to life. She brings a wide breadth of experience to the role, having previously held senior positions at a number of the world’s most creative agencies, including at Omnicom-owned agency Lucky General, as their first CEO and prior to this as Marketing Director and latterly Managing Director at global creative agency, Leo Burnett.
Experiential advertising agency Momentum Worldwide has appointed Matt Lewis as its new UK president. Lewis moves from his role of president at Momentum Worldwide Canada to take up the role. During his six years at Momentum Canada, Lewis won Momentum Worldwide’s first Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Nike’s ‘Just Do It HQ At The Church’ work, and significantly grew the agency. Lewis will replace Luke D’Arcy, who will be moving into a newly created position of EMEA Growth Officer after being UK President since 2016.
Criteo has appointed Ryan Cook as Managing Director, UK. In this role, Cook will be responsible for setting the local strategy and vision for the market, developing new products to grow both the new and existing portfolio of accounts across all Criteo business streams (Agencies, New Business, Key Account and Core). The role is also focused on helping Criteo work more closely with the media and wider advertising ecosystem, including close links with industry bodies. Cook brings more than 12 years of experience across various roles within the ad tech sector, both in the US and in the UK. During his time at Nexage (now OATH), Cook launched the first Open RTB programmatic platform, helping establish the movement of brands and ad buyers to more transparent, tech-driven advertising. Since then, he has maintained a strong track record within the ad tech sector for exceeding revenue goals and delivering high customer service standards.
Integral Ad Science has announced the appointment of Csaba Szabo as Managing Director, EMEA, as the company continues its and growth across Europe. Based in London, Szabo reports directly to Chance Johnson, Chief Revenue Officer at IAS. Szabo brings more than 15 years’ experience in scaling global software and technology companies to his new role at IAS. Most recently he was the VP, EMEA at Shutterstock where he helped grow the company’s international footprint. Previously, he helped drive the European sales strategy for mid-market and resellers at Yahoo as Senior Commercial Director, EMEA.
Influencer.com has appointed Suzanne Burrows as its Chief Financial Officer. She brings to the role 20 years of leadership in financial operations for a range of high-growth and mature media companies, including extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions. She most recently served as Group CFO at UKTV. Prior to this, she was the CFO and FD at BBC Studios, UK region. While there, Burrows was the finance lead of the acquisition of UKTV for £173 million.
Separately, the company has opened a Manchester (UK) office, and appointed Olivia Thomasson as a Client Partner. Thomasson joins Influencer.com from Social Chain and Mob Kitchen as a Client Partner. She will be tasked with responding to large clients briefs, RFIs, and RFPs, proactively seeking new business opportunities and leading on pitches to high profile prospects and key clients
MediaVision has announed two senior hires. Natalie Bell joins the agency as its first-ever Head of People, bringing over 20 years’ experience of the recruitment and talent space to the role. In all, she spent over 14 years at Major Players (separated by a stint at Workfish), most recently in the role of HR and People Director for five years plus. Joining at the same time as Natalie is Strategic Client Lead, Emma Armstrong. She joins from BlendB2B where she was an Account Director delivering digital marketing strategies for global B2B brands. She has over 10 years agency experience including a European leadership role at ReachLocal. She also has client-side experience gained at booking.com in an affiliate marketing role. She will be leading the agency’s integrated performance campaigns across a range of clients.
Darren Bailes has been promoted to VCCP's first ever global Chief Creative Officer which will mean creative duo Jonny Parker and Chris Birch assume ECD duties for the London office. Alongside Parker and Birch, the VCCP London creative senior line-up will be completed by Caroline Rawlings who has been promoted to Creative Director, and Kimberley Gill who re-joins the agency as Creative Director.
In-game advertising company Anzu.io has hired Chris Blight to lead the global demand team as the company continues to expand across the globe. An industry veteran and advertising expert, Blight has been part of the UK ad industry for 18 years, having worked as UK Commercial Director at Opera Mediaworks and Sales Director at Autotrader, and spent significant time working at various titles across Haymarket Publishing and Reed Business Information. He was also part of the original team from 4th Screen Advertising who was acquired by Opera back in 2012, and was instrumental in their rapid growth ahead of the surge in mobile advertising.
Teads has promoted Monique Pintarelli to Chief Revenue Officer for the United States. This promotion follows the resignation of Jim Daily, who previously led the US business. She joined Teads in 2018, with considerable TV and digital media experience from Turner and Viant, to lead the west coast operation, which has been a significant driver of growth for Teads’ US business. In her new role, she will oversee US teams including sales, creative strategy, customer experience, insights and marketing.
Digital agency Hallam has hired Alex Jackson as Senior Paid Social Consultant, and Darren Smith as Paid Social Consultant. Jackson brings over five years’ experience to the role, having previously worked with national and international brands across various sectors, from banking to fashion. Smith holds an MSc in Marketing and has over three years’ agency experience
Iterable has appointed Adriana Gil Miner as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), where she will be responsible for managing all aspects of Iterable’s marketing efforts, including customer advocacy, strategy, communications, brand management, and global events. Before joining Iterable, she served as CMO of Qumulo, an enterprise data storage leader. Prior to that, she was SVP of Brand Marketing & Events of Tableau where she helped establish Tableau as a category leader in data analytics, helping it grow from $250m to more than $1 billion and through the Salesforce acquisition.
Mediaocean has announced the appointment of two new executives, John Malysiak and Perianne Grignon. Malysiak has been appointed to SVP of Cross-Platform Solutions, where he will ensure the continued adoption of product integrations, while Grignon has joined the company as VP of Strategy for Agency Solutions, where she will lead Mediaocean’s core systems strategy for agency partners.
Ogury has hired Ossie Bayram as UK Country Director. In his role, Bayram aims to increase Ogury’s position as the go-to mobile ad partner for all agencies and brands, as well as strengthening relations with local publishers. Bayram has more than a decade of senior level experience in the publishing and advertising industry. He has worked with some of the biggest news and magazine brands, including News UK’s The Times and The Sun, and Minute Media’s 90 Min, as well as fast-growth startups.
Prior to joining Ogury, Bayram worked for Schibsted, the owner of leading newspapers in Norway. Here, he took the mantle of Head of Advertising at Shpock, followed by UK Country Manager at PriceSpy. During his time at the latter, Bayram successfully revamped the UK office to drive more revenue and positive brand awareness.
Digital agency Organic has announced the appointment of Tom Hedley as Lead Engineer. He will be responsible for leading on project work and overseeing and giving direction to other engineers within the software engineering team. He will be in charge of assuring quality and punctual delivery for all clients, offering technical consultancy on tech stacks/platforms and architecting solutions using appropriate technology and peer-reviewing code and providing feedback. Prior to joining Organic, Hedley spent nearly a decade working as a freelance Front-End Developer.
Blockchain and ad tech firm, Verasity, has hired Elliot Hill to lead communications, PR, and content strategy. Hill has worked in blockchain, PR and communications since early 2017, having previously worked with the likes of the Cardano Foundation, Occam Finance, Sygnum digital asset bank, Mode, and many other start-ups and established blockchain projects.
