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.

Social Chain brings in Osborne to lead data and insights
McVal Osborne has been appointed head of data and insights at Social Chain, a social-first marketing agency. He will oversee the data team including the lead data analyst and insights assistant to further establish the research department, while using his expertise to help the team identify the weak spots of clients and provide them with knowledge to address this.

Prior to joining Social Chain, Osborne was working at ORC International in New York City where he carried out market research for major accounts including MTV, Walmart, Kraft, AOL and Bacardi. Preceding this, Osborne worked for a political research and consulting firm in Washington DC after graduating from the University of California.

“Gaining social-first insights has become integral to the decisions that we make and the actions that we take,” said Osborne. “The data captured through social media is forever changing how brands operate, both online and offline. Brands want to understand buying behaviour, customer motivations and consumer perception in their target demographic, which means they need access to the right data, quickly.”

Barash rejoins AdColony
Mobile performance marketplace AdColony has re-hired Matt Barash as head of strategy and business development. Alongside this, the company has promoted Camila Franklin to VP of programmatic and Tom Simpson to VP of brand & exchange APAC.

Barash, who left AdColony in 2017, returns to the company in a newly-formed role to lead marketplace strategy with a focus on increasing automation and transparency initiatives, delivering client outcomes and developing strategic partnerships to ensure the company’s continued success into 2020 and beyond.

“There’s a lot to look forward to as we continue to capitalise on industry advances in hardware and 5G connectivity to provide unique creative executions, which harness the power of sight, sound and motion to addressable audiences,” said Barash.

Meanwhile, Franklin’s promotion will see her oversee AdColony’s global programmatic product and engineering efforts, reporting to CEO Lars Boilesen. She joined AdColony in 2015 as leader of the client services team.

“We are focused on efficiently and effectively partnering with other automated technologies to create a scalable marketplace and to drive impactful programmatic solutions,” said Franklin. “I take tremendous pride in joining the executive leadership team as we continue to ensure that AdColony provides a best-in-class service.”

Simpson’s new role leave him responsible for driving the overall strategy and direction of the APAC business at AdColony.

“I am excited to lead AdColony’s charge in Asia-Pacific, as the importance of this region grows globally,” said Simpson. “This is an exciting environment for marketing at a global level, and we passionately believe that for brands in our region, mobile apps – especially gaming – are the new (and improved) social media in terms of connecting with consumers. Through my new position, I look forward to collaborating even more closely with our fantastic partners to leverage on this in the years ahead.”

Send Me a Sample hires five
Send Me a Sample, a voice-led sampling and customer data acquisition business, has made five hires across its UK and US offices.

UK hires include James Leung as product manager, Simon McLoughlin as director of operations, and Kate Birtwistle as UK director, while Manuel Fuentes has been hired as general manager in the US alongside Dasha Alekseyeva as client success manager. Both UK and US teams will report to co-founders Richard Hill and Will Glynn-Jones.

“Since our launch in September last year, we’ve delivered successful campaigns for the likes of Coca-Cola, Benefit Cosmetics and Nutella. Through these projects, we’ve amassed a database of well over 150,000 consumers, which has led to a huge level of interest from global brands across the UK, USA and other European markets,” said Hill.

 “With such rapid growth and an increasingly expanding pipeline, we needed to strengthen the team to match. Expect to see more as Send Me a Sample continues to grow over 2019.”

Murphy arrives at Visualsoft to lead PPC
Visualsoft, an eCommerce and digital agency, has hired Craig Murphy as its head of paid search. He will be tasked with ensuring that its paid search offering remains at the forefront of the industry and adapts as and when needed. Murphy’s ultimate purpose will be to offer the best and most appropriate PPC strategy to clients to maximise their growth.

Prior to taking up this role, Murphy held senior positions as head of PPC strategy at MediaCom North and head of paid media at Latitude Digital Marketing.

“I want to grow the department to become the UK’s biggest and most successful PPC team. This isn’t simply in terms of revenue for the business, but also by ensuring that our client product offering is of the absolute highest quality,” said Murphy.

WLT appoints business CEO and non-exec board director
Marketing production and business support services provider Williams Lea Tag has appointed Clare Hart as CEO of the company’s business unit and Paul Carr as non-executive board director.

Hart most recently served as CEO of Sterling Talent Solutions where she drove the company’s growth strategy through new products and services, geographic expansion and organisational redesign around key industry verticals.  Prior to Sterling, Hart was president and CEO of Infogroup where she transformed the business by reorganising the company to client-focused lines-of-business under a united and enhanced Infogroup brand.  Hart also served as president of the Dow Enterprise Media Group and president and CEO of Factiva, a joint venture of Dow Jones and Reuters.

“I am excited about joining Williams Lea and leading the team to deliver ever-improving products and services that enable our clients – and all Williams Lea stakeholders – to enjoy improved business operations and ultimately commercial success,” said Hart.

Carr joins the Williams Lea Tag board in addition to his current role as president of Third Bridge, a disruptive primary research provider to institutional investors.  Previously, he served over ten years as president of Axiom Law, a leading disruptor in the legal industry. Prior to that, he was head of strategy at American Express and a partner at the Boston Consulting Group. 

Nassar and Humphrey join SecureAuth exec team
John Nassar and Robert Humphrey have been appointed CRO and CMO, respectively, at secure identity firm SecureAuth.

Nassar joins with over 30 years’ experience in high-performance sales organisations in the security market. He has built and led teams at multiple organisations including Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint and Cisco Systems. In his role as CRO, Nassar will lead all revenue producing functions globally.

“The identity market has exploded in both market size and its recognized importance to both the security and business impact to organizations,” said Nassar. “I am excited to join SecureAuth and its impressive team and hypergrowth business.”

Humphrey brings more than 35 years of experience in sales and marketing, with expertise ranging in market strategy, demand generation and brand awareness. Humphrey arrives at SecureAuth after having served as CMO of ForgeRock. Past executive leadership roles include Citadel Security, McAfee, ITKO, and CA Technologies.