The mobile marketing industry is ever-changing, and that applies to the people as much as the technology. Movers & Shakers is a regular feature following the hottest hires in the industry, so you can keep track of whos joined which company, and what theyre doing there.

Opera Mediaworks Appoints Keith Winter as COO
Mobile ad and marketing platform Opera Mediaworks has announced a new chief operating officer, Keith Winter, who will be responsible for building and scaling revenue and operations to help strengthen the companys position as one of the top platforms for mobile advertisers and publishers.

Winter brings over 30 years of operation experience to the Opera Mediaworks executive team, two-thirds of it in digital. He has held COO and president titles within companies including BuyMedia.com, Electronic Arts and Exponential/Tribal Fusion, as well as leading planning and development at Disney Interactive.

He will work closely within the team to develop strategic relationships with advertisers, premium publishers and app developers worldwide, as well as expanding Operas platform reach and revenue, rolling out new technology and taking the company to the next level of growth and profitability.

“In a world where the most important medium for consumers is mobile, there is no better time to be working in the mobile advertising industry than today,” said Winter. “Whats happening in mobile is absolutely transformational, and Opera Mediaworks is a key player in this space. Im thrilled and proud to be part of it.”

SpotX Finds New Director of Platform Services
Ed Wale has joined video inventory platform SpotX as its new director of platform services for UK and Southern Europe, further expanding the companys account management for publishers, broadcasters and app developers.

Wale joins the firm from Videology, where he managed a multi-million pound portfolio of advertiser and agency business with responsibility to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of their video ad campaigns online. Before that, he spent three years at Brightroll, working with a range of leading agencies.

“I saw Ed Wales talent first-hand when I worked with him at Brightroll,” said Leon Siotis, managing director for UK and Southern Europe at SpotX. “He is well-respected in the industry, having developed senior relationships with pan-European media agencies and has a deep knowledge of the video industry. He can bring years of buy-side expertise to bear at SpotX, helping publishers and broadcasters understand how advertisers and their agencies aim to apply data to their media buying and value they assign to each impression.”

IO Strengthens Team with Chief Scientific Officer
Specialist prospecting demand-side platform IO has appointed Peter Silverwood as chief scientific officer, solidifying the companys focus on directing the next generation of machine learning algorithms.

Peter joined IO three years ago and in his role as performance manager, has been integral to the research and development of IOs proprietary technology that makes use of machine learning to automate and optimise the process of buying online ad space on behalf of its clients.

He studied astrophysics and computer science at Cambridge, and has over 15 years experience in IT, tech development and big data. As chief scientific officer, he will focus on directing the next generation of intelligent algorithms, applying his real world business and technology experience to IOs platform.

“Performance is all about optimisation and learing what is effective,” said Silverwood. “Ultimately its about KPIs and the numbers but its all done on human time and human scale. With machine learning we can do this in real-time, and on an unparalleled scale exploiting subtleties and opportunities which would otherwise pass by without even being noticed. The capabilities here are truly exciting.”

New Non-exec Chairman Joins Ruler Analytics
Ruler Analytics, one of the UKs leading visitor-level marketing analytics and phone call tracking platforms, has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Richard Gregory as non-executive chairman.

Richard was managing director at digital marketing agency Latitude, where he was responsible for leading the teams to plan and implement campaigns for clients across Europe, US and MENA, and is the co-founder of SAScon, the UKs largest search analytics and social conference.

“Having worked with many digital agencies and startups, I felt particularly interested in what Ruler Analytics had to offer,” said Gregory. “The team have delivered a product that successfully combines visitor-level analytics, call tracking, attribution and CRM integration – everything a marketing would need.”