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…

Prieto appointed Global Marketing Director for SEAT and CUPRA
SEAT has appointed Ignasi Prieto as the Global Marketing Director for SEAT and CUPRA. Prieto will report to Kai Vogler, SEAT Vice President for Sales and Marketing, and Antonino Labate, CUPRA Strategy Director. He succeedsJason Lusty, who will become Head of Volkswagen Group Brand Strategy and Group Marketing.

Ignasi has 15 years of experience in automotive marketing and advertising. He joined SEAT in 2015 as  Global Head of Brand Advertising, and after two years in this role, was appointed as the Global Head of Brand Content, Sponsoring & Social Media. In January 2020, he was appointed Global Head of Marketing at CUPRA, a position he has held to date.

Before joining SEAT, he worked for over eight years at Nissan Motor Corporation, where he held various positions in advertising, business strategy and customer retail experience. He also has extensive experience as an account executive in communication and advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson, Delvico Bates and TBWA.

“I would like to congratulate Ignasi for his new role as SEAT and CUPRA Global Marketing Director,” said Wayne Griffiths, CEO of SEAT and CUPRA. “Over the years he has been a strategic asset in the positioning of the two brands and especially in leveraging awareness for the CUPRA brand. Under his leadership we start a new phase. His commitment and skills will help tremendously to continue growing. It is always a pleasure to recognise and promote internal talent.”

Rostom takes up CMO role at Bought By Many
International pet health and insurtech company Bought By Many has appointed Adam Rostom as Chief Marketing Officer. He joins at a significant stage in Bought By Many’s journey, as the company looks to expand its remit beyond pet insurance to aid pet health and owner happiness through subscription-based services. He had previously been CMO at Babylon Health since 2018. 

Bought By Many launched pet insurance in the UK in 2017, expanded into the Swedish market in 2019, and earlier this year crossed the Atlantic to launch a state-by-state roll out in the US, both under the ManyPets brand. The group now insures half a million pets globally.

In June 2021, the company gained unicorn status after securing a valuation of over $2bn (£1.47bn) following a $350m Series D funding round through its holding company Many Group. The investment has helped support Bought by Manys global expansion and drive product development beyond its insurance offer. The funding has also supercharged recruitment, with the group doubling its team to over 350 over the past year. Rostom will help build international brand awareness for Bought By Many and ManyPets as the brands continue to revolutionise how owners access pet health services, products and advice.

“Adam has a solid track record for accelerating brand awareness for fast-growth businesses like ours, and brings extensive experience to help cement us as a household name to pet parents around the world,” said Steven Mendel, CEO and Co-founder of Bought By Many. “We’re reaching thousands more pet owners every day and listening closely to what they need to help give their pets the best in life. Having Adam on our team will help us bridge the gap between insurance and beyond.”

Wavemaker hires Spaeth from Accenture
Media agency network Wavemaker has appointed former Accenture MD Kathryn Spaeth as its new Global Chief Transformation Officer. She is based in New York and joins CEO Toby Jenner’s global leadership team. 

At Accenture, Spaeth was Managing Director, Applied Intelligence, Consulting, and she has also held roles at Epsilon, United Airlines and with Silicon Valley start-ups. She has been appointed to focus Wavemaker’s consultancy capabilities to unlock growth for the agency’s clients, and will lead the Wavemaker Consultancy Hub, comprising 2,250 global experts within the business-critical areas of Commerce, Precision, Content, Data, Addressable, Tech and Analytics. She will also work to strengthen collaboration with key media partners such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, to deliver innovative solutions for brands.

She said: “I believe that Wavemaker truly has an opportunity to offer best-in-class consultancy services, strategically guiding clients to generate incremental value from their media and creative by leveraging data, content and technology. I am eager to join the leadership team to shape Wavemaker’s future, inspire innovation and help teams and clients leverage the power of our ideas to bring about transformational growth.”

Guerra to head up Revolut operation in Mexico
Financial superapp Revolut has appointed Juan Miguel Guerra as its CEO in Mexico, following the launch of its US-Mexico remittance corridor in July. Before joining Revolut, Guerra held senior executive roles at Rappi as Head of RappiPay Mexico; Citibanamex as Chief Innovation Officer; and other fintech firms.  He will build a team in Mexico to lead Revolut’s expansion in the country. Revolut will be among the first UK fintechs to reach Mexico. Its launch in the country is the latest step in its international expansion plans, following successful launches in Singapore and Australia in 2019; and the US and Japan in 2020. 

After opening operations in the US in March 2020, Revolut opened up easy access, fast, low cost cross-border payments with the launch of its US-Mexico remittance corridor. The feature enables Revolut customers in both countries to easily transfer money between countries without any hidden fees, at the real exchange rate. 

Led by Guerra, Revolut Mexico aims to quickly build a talented team and introduce its suite of digitally-enabled products across personal banking and business accounts, cards and payments, foreign exchange transfers and remittances, insurance and other financial services to the country.

Nik Storonsky, CEO and co-founder of Revolut, said: “With his wealth of experience in the fintech and consumer tech sectors and an outstanding track record, we’re delighted that Juan is to join Revolut and help us work toward our mission of creating the world’s first truly global financial superapp. We’re looking forward to transforming the way people in Mexico access and manage their money as we bring our products and services to more people around the world.

Mexico is an important market in our expansion strategy with a huge supply of talent, and we’re excited to tap into that talent pool to help Revolut go from strength to strength.”

Havas Media Group hires two
Havas Media Group has appointed Dentsu’s Kim Peatling to the newly-created role of Head of Growth and Marketing. She arrives from Dentsu X, where she spent just under three years as Managing Partner, Business Development and Marketing.

In her new role, Peatling will develop and lead Havas Media Group’s UK and Ireland growth strategy, from prospecting and conversion of new clients through to creating organic growth strategies across its existing client base. Peatling is tasked with keeping her finger on the pulse of what clients are looking for from their agencies in terms of evolved capabilities, working to identify the need for new product offerings in order to help further strengthen Havas Media Group’s position in the agency marketplace.

She will also oversee marketing, helping to promote and celebrate the work of Havas Media Group’s three distinct propositions, Havas Media, Havas Entertainment and Havas Market, following the simplification of its offering earlier this year, as well as leveraging the group’s key initiatives, such as Havas Boost, the social equity marketplace and the sustainability marketplace, all of which reflect its ongoing efforts to make a meaningful difference to brands, business and people.

Peatling has previously held new business and marketing roles at agencies including Fetch, Publicis Media, Starcom, Mediavest and AdConnection (which was later acquired by VCCP).

Patrick Affleck, CEO, Havas Media Group, said: “Kim is a proven leader in the new business space, as well as being exceptionally digitally savvy, strategic and creative, with bags of confidence. She has the ability to inspire and bring out the best in people and I have no doubt that she will be a brilliant addition to our team as we work to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people.”

The company has also appointed Catherine Lux as its Head of SEO following a period of growth for its performance business, which has seen it take on more SEO work from existing clients as well as picking up a number of new accounts. She joins the agency after three years at Google in London as a Content Lead, where she was responsible for driving content strategy across key B2B products in EMEA.

Prior to her time at Google, Lux worked at Reprise Media in Sydney, managing the global Tourism Australia SEO account across 18 markets worldwide, as well as Coca-Cola’s APAC account. She was instrumental in the online success of Tourism Australia’s $36m Superbowl campaign, ‘Dundee’, in 2018, leading the SEO and content strategy alongside integration with paid search activity.

In her new role, Lux will work to develop a market-leading SEO product and head up Havas Media Group’s SEO team, driving product innovation and channel integration with paid search. She will also lead the strategic vision for clients, with the ultimate aim of improving performance, as part of Havas Media Group’s ongoing efforts to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people.

Reporting in to Head of Performance, John Stuchfield, Lux will lead a team of fifteen SEO specialists across technical search, performance content and digital PR.

MediaMath bolsters management team with four appointments
Demand Side Platform MediaMath has announced several new appointments to its Global and European Ecosystem and Client Success leadership teams with Carl Millikin joining as Vice President, Global Trading and Client Performance; Frederic Lutt as Vice President, Growth; and William Jones as Vice President, Partnerships EMEA and APAC. Lauren Bigland has also joined the Global Marketing team, as Marketing Director EMEA and APAC. 

Millikin is a SAAS expert who, over the last nine years, has held senior leadership positions in client-facing roles at The Trade Desk, Radium One and Videology, driving through complex business transformation at scale. His role will be to lead MediaMath’s trading and client performance teams worldwide.

Lutt joins the company after more than 10 years at Google as Senior Head of Sales for Google’s Marketing Platform, where he was responsible for acquiring, renewing and servicing top Google clients in the Finance, Services and Auto verticals.

In 2019 MediaMath launched its SOURCE ecosystem, designed to introduce transparency into the programmatic supply chain. It said the appointment of Jones, formerly Head of Business Development CTV/OTT at Magnite, underlines the commitment to a transparent, high quality supply chain across all mediums, including CTV.

Lauren Bigland takes up the role of Marketing Director, EMEA & APAC. She previously led global marketing out of the UK for ad tech companies S4M and LoopMe. She will be responsible for driving MediaMath’s industry marketing in EMEA and APAC, with a key focus on customer communications and client growth.

“We are delighted to welcome Carl, Frederic, William and Lauren to the MediaMath team,” said MediaMath CChief Client Officer, Eleni Nicholas. “Their combined expertise will be an asset as we continue to expand our efforts to deliver scale and flexibility via our future-proofed enterprise platform and support the business growth of our brand and agency partners across the globe.”

Criteo expands Rieul’s responsibilities with Western Europe role
Criteo has appointed Nicolas Rieul as Managing Director Western Europe. He takes up the newly-created position on top of his current role as Managing Director France. In his expanded remit, Rieul will oversee a team of country leaders across Europe with the aim of synchronising and further driving the company’s commercial strategy in the region.

Next to developing Criteo’s business, one of Rieul’s key focus areas will be driving awareness of what Criteo’s Commerce Media Platform can bring to marketers and media owners. At the same time, he’ll be creating and amplifying relationships within the media and advertising industry to further drive and promote important industry initiatives that support the open web ecosystem.

Rieul is President of the IAB France, Vice President of Mobile Marketing Association France, a member of the executive committee of IAB Europe and a board member at Numeum. He joined Criteo in August 2019 from S4M DSP, where he served as Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer. Prior to that, he held senior positions as Head of Mobile at media agency Dentsu. He is a graduate of ESSEC and also holds a Masters degree from EDC Paris and a Bachelors degree in Business Studies from Abertay Dundee University in the UK.

He said: “I’m excited to take this expanded role at such an exciting time for the company. Thanks to our technology, access to first-party data, people and innovative DNA, Criteo is perfectly positioned to help shape the future of digital advertising on the open web. But we know we can’t do this alone. I’ll be working closely with my team on identifying opportunities for the open internet while continuing to build trustful relationships within the industry.”

Novarina heads to Kochava
Kochava, which provides real-time data solutions for omnichannel attribution and measurement, has unveiled Arthur Novarina as the new Regional Vice President for Kochava EMEA. Novarina will be based in Kochava’s Barcelona office, reporting to Kochava CRO, Nic Beraudo.

Novarina has over a decade of experience working with leading tech companies from London to Dubai. He served as the Director of Business Development at Huawei and was also the Director of Business Development and Customer Success at App Annie.  

“We are thrilled to have Arthur join the team and help EMEA continue to exceed expectations in growth,” said Beraudo. “Having previously worked with Arthur, I have extensive first-hand experience of his capabilities and deep knowledge of the regional ecosystem, which will be a tremendous asset to the organization.”

Atkinson to head up enterprise sales for CXM Service Line
Merkle has appointed Mark Atkinson to the position of VP Adobe EMEA Alliance & Enterprise Sales Lead for Merkle and Dentsu’s CXM Service Line, with a focus on the commercial and go-to-market strategies across EMEA. He comes to Merkle from his previous role as UK Head of Platform & Specialist Sales at Adobe,

In this newly created role, Atkinson will support brands looking to increase their technology investments due to the accelerated need to modernise solutions to meet changing customer expectations. He will be tasked with strengthening and driving the mutual business strategy with Adobe across EMEA, whilst helping clients achieve value from their technology investments. The role brings vital expertise and a deeper focus on Merkle’s growing partnership with Adobe in the region, helping clients deliver a seamless customer experience across every touchpoint. Merkle is one of Adobe’s leading partners globally, with over 1,000 Adobe experts. Merkle was one of the first companies to be accredited on the Adobe Experience Platform.

Atkinson said: “CX transformation continues to be at the forefront of customer growth strategies, and combining Adobe’s market-leading CX technology, with Merkle’s proven experience in rapidly driving value-based customer outcomes and sustainable returns from technology investment is a proposition un-matched in the EMEA market.”

Taylor to lead Brand Metrics’ US Customer Success team
Brand Metrics, which works with publishers to demonstrate the effectiveness of digital advertising, has hired Taylor Sturtevant to head up the US Customer Success team, focused on client relationships.  

Previously Director, Customer Success at Marketing Evolution, a New York-based provider of marketing measurement and optimisation solutions, she is an experienced industry professional with an impressive track record in market research, team leadership, customer service and strategic planning.
Brand Metrics enables publishers to prove the effectiveness of campaigns continuously and consistently against advertisers’ key metrics, by measuring brand lift at scale, regardless of campaign size and cost.

“We are delighted to welcome Taylor as we continue to experience strong interest in the US market,” said Brand Metrics Co-founder, Mikael Larsson. “At Marketing Evolution, Taylor started as an intern and rapidly worked her way up to director level. She shows relentless attention to detail and urgency in execution in all that she does – all whilst managing multiple accounts simultaneously and leading cross-functional teams, providing actionable research insights and recommendations that tie to measurable client value.”

Tribal hires Sweatman as its CTO
Tribal Worldwide has appointed Mark Sweatman to the role of Chief Technology Officer, reporting to CEO Tom Roberts. 

Sweatman joins Tribal from VCCP CX, the dedicated customer experience arm of VCCP, where he was its Head of Technology. With over two decades of technology and leadership experience, including roles at Agency.com and Ogilvy, he has helped build world class enterprise solutions, apps, and digital experiences for some the UK’s best known brands. He will be pivotal in supporting Tribal Worldwide as it looks to grow the business and take on more complex and technical offerings

Sweatman will lead Tribal London’s 60-strong Tech Engineering Practice, as well as overseeing strategic technical projects across all clients. In particular, he will work across the whole Volkswagen Group.

“Mark joins us with a wealth of experience across a wide range of marketing technology platforms, coupled with an understanding of managing large teams of technologists across multiple locations,” said Tribal Worldwide CEO, Tom Roberts. “His deep knowledge of the marketing technology landscape, the changing nature of what support clients need from a technology partner now and in the future, will be invaluable as we evolve the services we provide to clients. We’re excited to welcome his positive energy and pragmatic attitude to problem solving.”

Adform hands Western Europe Bizdev role to Zeller
Independent advertising platform Adform has announced the appointment of Anne-Sophie Zeller as Publisher Business Development Director for Western Europe.

Zeller will collaborate with the Sales and Customer Success teams to grow Adform’s Publisher business in Western Europe. Reporting to Adform’s Director for Customer Success in Western and Southern Europe, Alexandra Jarry-Bourne, Zeller will be responsible for cultivating new and existing client relationships for Adform’s publisher solutions.

She has more than seven years’ experience in sell-side account management and business development roles. Prior to joining Adform, she was an Account Director at video advertising platform, SpotX, and Senior Business Development Manager for EMEA (Sell Side) at Integral Ad Science. Here, she was responsible for driving publisher revenue growth and working with product, programmatic and solution engineering teams to improve the publisher product offering. Before this, Zeller oversaw a large publisher client portfolio for The Rubicon Project in France, Belgium, Spain, Greece and the UAE.

She said: “I’m excited to join the team during such a high-growth period and look forward to connecting Adform’s publisher clients with solutions that secure maximum value for every impression.”

YouAppi hires GMs for Japan and Europe
YouAppi has appointed Takuya Miura as General Manager for Japan and Xavier Bourland as General Manager for Europe.
Miura, who has almost 10 years’ experience in digital and mobile marketing, joined YouAppi in 2018 and was formerly with digital agency Adways as well as the largest local Japanese agency, Asatsu-DK.

He sees the Japan market as highly competitive with many high value opportunities in which to bring YouAppi’s comprehensive range of mobile marketing solutions to grow business at every stage of the user funnel for his clients.

“Japan’s market is highly competitive, but we can see good opportunities for both programmatic UA and app retargeting after the long awaited iOS14.5 change,” he said. “I am thrilled to lead the JP team and support many Japanese clients with our products.”

2020 was a boom for Japanese app publishers with nearly 22% of all global mobile game player spending coming from Japan, according to Sensortower. Furthermore, mobile gaming continues to surge in 2021 with Japanese app publishers at the top of the charts with billions of dollars in mobile user spending. As a result, mobile apps in the Japanese market are primed for new user acquisition and app retargeting opportunities. 

YouAppi’s new General Manager for Europe, Xavier Bourland, has more than 16 years’ mobile marketing experience, and has spent the last six years leading global business teams, with a focus on business growth and expansion in the European market. 

Prior to YouAppi, Bourland most recently served as Senior Vice President of International Business Development at Smadex, where he implemented business strategies that transformed the company to a category leader in mobile Demand Side Platforms. Before that, Bourland held leadership roles at Headway Digital and Glispa Global Group where he led business development. 

He said: “I believe we are uniquely positioned to truly help mobile marketing and provide high value to the advertisers. Mobile has seen so much change in recent years and it’s great to be part of a team working to solve the challenges in the mobile ecosystem and I am very bullish on our solution to these challenges.”

Barstow and Carr take up sales roles at Adnami
Ad platform Adnami, has recruited Alex Barstow as Publisher Sales Director, UK, and Tom Carr as Agency Sales Director.
Barstow joins from Inskin Media, where he was Head of UK Publishers. At Adnami, he will be responsible for managing and cultivating existing publisher relationships in the UK and onboarding new strategic publisher partners. He will lead service activation, delivery and training with top tier publishers.

He has over 15 years’ experience working with top tier publishers at companies including AOL, Scoota and Exponential.

Carr will be managing and growing the UK agency offering, building relationships with international trading desks from London and placing Adnami even more firmly on the map with UK agencies. He spent over seven years at mobile ad tech company, Ogury, where he most recently worked as Business Lead. Originally joining as the tenth person in the business, he was one of a team of 450 at the time he left.

“With decades of combined experience in publisher management and sales of digital media, both Alex and Tom will play important roles in shaping our business in the UK while bringing value to our clients,” said Adnami

CEO, Simon Kvist Gaulshøj. “Most importantly, they are both highly dynamic and passionate guys who fit right in to our culture of driven professionals who want to make their mark in the world of media technology.”

Launched in 2017, and with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm and London, Adnami is set to expand its programmatic tech solutions for high impact advertising throughout Europe in 2021. The company works with clients including Heineken, BMW, American Express, Disney, Samsung and Red Bull.

CleverTap hands growth role to Chowdhary
User engagement and retention platform CleverTap has appointed Vikrant Chowdhary as Chief Growth Officer. Chowdhary will lead CleverTap’s integrated go-to-market strategy globally across all commercial and enterprise segments.
Before CleverTap, Chowdhary worked with Salesforce, where he directed India’s finserv vertical and enterprise business units. Previously, he held country leadership roles with SAP – where he led the growth of the BFSI and telecom business unit, which became one of the best-performing teams in the country – as well as Teradata, IBM, and a number of startups. He earned an MBA from NITIE, Mumbai, and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Dayalbagh Educational Institute.

“We are thrilled to have Vikrant join us as our partner for growth as we scale our business in key global markets and sectors and steer CleverTap to become a global leader in the user retention space for mobile-first digital businesses,” said CleverTap Co-founder and CEO, Sunil Thomas. “For the first time, we will integrate all of our customer-facing functions, across sales, marketing, solution engineering, and partnerships, to make one CleverTap Growth team under Vikrants leadership.”

Stanford to lead marketing at Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice has named Zarina Lam Stanford as Chief Marketing Officer. An established leader with global SaaS experience spanning North America, Asia Pacific & Japan, Europe, and other growth markets, Stanford brings over 20 years of experience in leading with a customer-centric, insights-driven, and outcome-based approach to marketing and business growth at numerous SaaS companies.

Prior to joining Bazaarvoice, Stanford was Chief Communication and Marketing Officer of Rackspace Technology and held senior sales and marketing executive positions at companies including IBM and SAP, and private equity firm Syniti. Stanford was recently named among the 2021 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center and is a member of the Marketing Academy CMO Fellow.

“I am excited to welcome Zarina to Bazaarvoice,” says Bazaarvoice CEO, Keith Nealon. “With Zarina on board, we are well poised to deliver our overall mission to enable brands and retailers to mobilise the full potential of how user-generated content can unlock tremendous growth opportunities for their business.”

Journey Further hires three
Performance marketing agency, Journey Further, has appointed Lauren McFarland, Katheryn Watson and Amy Jones to join its Influencer Marketing, Digital PR and Creative teams respectively. 

McFarland leaves her role as Senior Client Partner at Influencer to join Journey Further as Influencer Marketing Director. She will be leveraging her experience working with the likes of PepsiCo and Mars to develop the agency’s influencer marketing proposition for its growing customer base. 

Watson joins Journey Further’s London office from Jellyfish as Head of PR. She will build the southern PR team and work closely with PR Director, Beth Nunnington, to lead key accounts and drive new business activity.

Jones departs her role as Campaign Lead at Rise at Seven to join Journey Further as Senior Art Director in the agency’s through the line creative team. She will help drive the agency’s data-driven creative approach, managing an art and copy team from the Leeds HQ.

“I keep a close eye on the talent in the market and Lauren, Katheryn and Amy have been on my wishlist for quite some time,” said Journey Further CEO, Robin Skidmore. “We need the right people on board to help us achieve our vision of unifying the worlds of performance and brand marketing. We have made some big steps towards that this week.”