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.

Triller takes TikTok influencer trio onboard
Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson, and Noah Beck have all jumped ship from TikTok to social video rival Triller. 18-year-old Richards will join the platform as Chief Strategy Officer, following an investment in the app, while Johnson and Beck become advisors and equity shareholders.

In addition to heading up strategy, Richards – who is co-founder of digital talent management firm TalentX Entertainment – will oversee the company’s implementation of live streaming and the addition of monetisation tools.

“After seeing the US and other countries governments concerns over TikTok – and given my responsibility to protect and lead my followers and other influencers – I followed my instincts as an entrepreneur and made it my mission to find a solution. I am proud to announce that I am formally an investor in Triller and will serve as their Chief Strategy Officer,” said Richards.

“As part of my role with Triller, I will help guide the user experience and talent tools and technology to be the absolute best in the industry, focusing on what is needed for creators to succeed on both the content and monetization front. Todays announcement is a major step towards achieving this goal and I couldnt be more excited to start this next chapter.”

Doyle and Witkowski take up sales roles at Blippar
Augmented reality firm Blippar has appointed Steve Doyle as UK Sales Director and Emma Witkowski as Vice President of Sales, North America.

Doyle has held commercial leadership positions in the advertising and technology sector for over two decades. As Chief Commercial Officer at Inskin Media, he grew an international commercial department from inception to $40 million turnover across seven markets during his nine-year tenure. He has also been the Chairman of the IAB Video Council and a Board Member of the International Advertising Board. More recently, he has been consulting with ad tech start-ups and early-stage businesses, advising on commercial strategy and execution.

“The opportunity to reawaken this sleeping giant was too good to turn down,” said Doyle. “With advances in tech around 5G, the time couldnt be more right for the AR world to emerge into the mainstream. In a world of increasing choice, advertisers are looking for innovative ways of connecting with consumers at home, and AR offers a potential that is unrivalled.”

Witkowski – who will work alongside Blippar’s US Chief Commercial Officer, Keith Curtin – has worked with some of the industry’s biggest agencies and brands over the past 20 years including Facebook, Nissan, Lionsgate, Nordstrom, and Nestlé. She previously worked at Mindshare, where she was responsible for leading the company’s digital investment across the West Coast and Atlanta.

“Brands are always thinking about how they can creatively engage consumers and with the evolution of technology, specifically smartphones, AR can deliver on this problem,” added Witkowski. “Blippar has been an innovator in the space for the last decade and Im excited to help them further partner with agencies and brands. Given the current global climate, AR provides an opportunity for marketers to deliver a valuable interactive experience for consumers.”

Curve turns to Weller to take charge of finance
Scott Weller has been named as the first Chief Financial Officer at mobile banking platform Curve. He will be responsible for scaling Curve’s finance function as the complexity of the company’s financial planning and operations rapidly increases.

At PayPal, as one of the first members of its strategic finance function, Weller played a pivotal role in advancing next-generation business development initiatives and PayPal’s separation from eBay in 2015. In 2017, Scott relocated to Europe to build PayPal’s pricing strategy organisation across its Europe, Middle East and Africa markets. He started his career in BlackRock’s private equity group in North America, later relocating to Japan to expand BlackRock’s presence in APAC.

“I’m so excited to join Curve at this inflection point in the company’s growth journey,” said Weller. “Curve has established a unique position in the payments space as the first fintech to develop a digital experience that runs ‘over-the-top’ of customers’ fragmented banking relationships and spending use cases. We are solving difficult challenges through real innovation and we have assembled a formidable team to realise Curve’s full potential.”

Host of management changes at Globant
Globant, an IT and software development company, has appointed Patricia Pomies as its Chief People Officer, Mercedes Mac Pherson as Chief Talent and Diversity Officer, Fernando Matzkin as Chief Business Officer for North America, Nicolás Ávila as Chief Technology Officer for North America, and Federico Pienovi as General Manager of Northern Europe and Asia.

Pomies will continue to oversee Globant’s business as Chief Delivery Officer alongside her new role. In the combined roles, she will be in charge of bringing together the people department with the delivery teams to ensure a unified strategy for talent retention and development globally.

Mac Pherson is responsible for global internal experience, leading career development, talent nurturing, culture and diversity programs.

Matzkin will be responsible for the overall expansion in North America while continuing to craft Globants strategy and client relationships.

Ávila will lead and expand Globants Augmented Coding platform and the Studios footprint in the US.

Pienovi will be responsible for leading Globants business strategy in Northern Europe and Asia, while developing its presence in new countries such as France, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore.

“We are seeing a very exciting future ahead of us. We expect to further extend our worldwide presence, and we believe strong leadership is going to be key in helping us be successful in an ever-evolving global environment,” said Martín Migoya, CEO and Co-founder of Globant. “At the same time, we will continue to work to reinforce Globants commitment to diversity – looking to achieve 50 per cent women and non-binary gender in management positions by 2025.”

Audience Store hires Champion for client development role
Matt Champion has been welcomed as the first Vice President of Client Development and Success at Audience Store, a programmatic technology activation company. He will deliver efficiencies for clients and promote Audience Store’s programmatic abilities to prospects.

Champion joins from his role as Chief Operating Officer at Slice, where he led the creation of an app that allowed consumers to control – and monetise – their stored personal data. He spent four years as Client Services Director at Dentsu’s mobile marketing agency, Fetch, and has also previously been Director of Digital at both PHD and Mediacom.

“We are thrilled to have such an industry heavyweight in Matt join our team and we are confident that he will contribute significantly to developing Audience Store,” said Chris Phillips, Managing Director at Audience Store. “This appointment marks the latest exciting chapter for Audience Store and is just the start of further growth and development plans.

Rabl and Stewart join AdInMo board
In-game advertising platform AdInMo has added Preston Rabl and Ana Stewart to its board of directors.

Rabl co-founded WPP with Martin Sorrell and has since invested in a range of businesses across advertising, technology, and investment management.

“In-game advertising, especially in mobile, is a very interesting platform for brands and agencies, from both a creative and media perspective,” said Rabl. “It enables advertisers to reach audiences with targeted ads at scale whilst not disrupting user experience. It’s an ad tech trend that will undoubtedly evolve rapidly as advertisers continue to look for increasingly impactful and cost-effective campaigns, especially post the Coronavirus crisis.”

Meanwhile, Stewart is the co-founder of digital UX design consultancy I-Design, which was acquired by Cardtronics in 2013. She’s now a technology advisor to businesses including the Scottish Football Association, where she was the first female board member in its 144-year history.

“Despite generating revenues of £159.3 bn and attracting a global audience of 2.6 billion consumers, games is still a largely untapped advertising channel for brands. But that is changing with rapid digital disruption,” Stewart added. “The programmatic advertising sector continues to evolve as brands seek authentic experiences to engage hard-to-reach audiences. I am excited to be able to support AdInMo to help deliver immersive in-game advertising at scale.”

Impact selects Schmidt to lead German office
Felix Schmidt has taken up the role of Country Manager for the DACH region, which includes Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, at partnership automation solution firm Impact. Reporting to EMEA Managing Director Florian Gramshammer, he will be responsible for establishing Impact’s growth in the region from the company’s new Berlin office.

Schmidt previously held the roles of Head of Business Development at MenschDanke and Head of Key Account Management and Sales at Webgears.

“Impact has created a game-changing SaaS platform which enables advertisers to leverage high quality partnerships globally at scale,” said Schmidt. “Having worked for a number of years in the affiliate industry Ive seen many attempts to provide the full picture in this way but the level of insights, reliability and effectiveness that Impact’s Partnership Cloud offers is unique. Im more than convinced that our platform will help DACH advertisers to unlock the growth potential of partnership automation. Germany is the fifth largest consumer market globally and brands have been harnessing the power of partnerships over the last 12 months and this is timely for us to be launching in this strong and innovative market.”

Garcia to take charge of privacy at UM
UM (Universal McCann), IPG Mediabrands’ global media agency network, has appointed Arielle Garcia as its first Chief Privacy Officer. Effective immediately, she will oversee the launch and implementation of UMs privacy program, including: setting the vision and strategic direction; developing and implementing policies and procedures; and creating education, training and thought leadership pieces. Additionally, Garcia will provide guidance to both internal teams and clients on privacy-related matters, and will be responsible for building and scaling UMs consulting offerings around privacy, trust and brand safety.

Garcia will also spearhead the IPG Mediabrands Privacy Taskforce and continue in her previous role of overseeing operations and compliance for the ExxonMobil account. She previously served as Vice President of Business Operations and Compliance for the ExxonMobil and Accenture accounts.

“Arielle has played a key role in cementing UMs standing as the industry leader in privacy and brand safety,” said Lynn Lewis, US CEO at UM. “Given her extensive work in a critical space that continues to grow and define our industry, Arielle will be on the front lines of the dialogue and debate around privacy-related developments and trends while driving a culture of compliance for our agency, clients, partners and the industry at large.”

Rakuten Ads hires Chin and Cueva
Mike Chin arrives as Senior Vice President of Client Services for North America, while Ceres Cueva joins as Vice President of Publisher Partnerships for North America, at Rakuten Advertising. They will be tasked with advancing the company’s strategic services and increase partner and client collaboration.

Both Chin and Cueva take up their roles following time at Macy’s. Chin most recently led digital media for the retailer and Cueva drove the brand’s affiliate monetisation strategy.

“Rakuten Advertisings strengths across both the buy-and sell-side are one of the reasons we saw so much success in our partnership at Macys,” said Cueva. “My first priority is to amplify that and increase the collaboration across brands and affiliates to help our clients reach their goals even faster. More than ever, collaboration and transparency are required for publishers and brands to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape, and I look forward to building on our strong foundation.”

Chin added: “Retailers, brands and publishers are grappling with truly unique challenges. At the same time, consumers shopping habits are changing – what theyre shopping for, how theyre buying, and how they communicate with brands is constantly evolving. Affiliate marketing provides the adaptability and flexibility that advertisers and publishers need to reach these audiences and drive high-value traffic. We have a significant opportunity to help them adopt strategies to engage these audiences, directly contribute to sales, and deliver greater value from their marketing mix.”

Atwood takes to the helm at NOM
Video advertising company NOM has chosen Brian Atwood to be its Chief Executive Officer. He is responsible for accelerating client success and the company’s growth.

Prior to NOM, Atwood served on the leadership teams of Zefr, Dataxu, iHeart Radio and AOL. He was also a member of the board at the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

“NOM ensures our clients’ ads reach their YouTube, and other video and social audiences and are aligned with content that reflects the brand’s values while eliminating wasted spend and exposure to questionable content,” said Atwood. “During a tough time in the market, I am excited to lead a high-integrity organisation and do what I can to empower our amazing team, clients and partners to win.”

TMWI makes trio of hires
Matt Baxter, Ammar Wahid, and Maria Keene have come onboard at marketing agency TMWI.

Baxter, who arrives as Web Development and Creative Manager, will help bolster the agency’s integrated creative digital offerings. As well as roles at McCann Erickson and IBM, he has worked extensively as a consultant in front-end web development for creative and digital agency clients across the B2C and B2B space.

Wahid, formerly a Data Scientist for Ofqual, joins as a Data Analyst. He will be tasked with modelling complex data problems through the use of R; discovering insights, identifying opportunities and optimising using statistical, algorithmic and data mining techniques.

Finally, Keene has been stepped into the role of Account Manager and will be responsible for streamlining account processes and ensuring seamless communications with clients; including delivering agreed KPIs that define success. She joins from her role as Senior Account Manager at Modern Media.

“We have added three strong team members with specific skills and each contribute to the delivery of our target- exceptional results for our clients,” said Chris Phillips, Managing Director of TMWI. “These appointments mark the latest exciting chapter in the TMWI growth story.”