What’s Possible Group, the harmonious marketing group for dynamic growth brands, has hired John Warwick as Creative Director to expand the Group’s creative offering. Warwick will drive growth of What’s Possible Creative Studio, which offers creative innovation to the clients of the Group’s agencies: The Specialist Works, Hubble, Pintarget and Connections. Warwick is a highly conceptual Creative Director, whose thinking has been behind iconic work for brands including O2, comparethemarket, Vauxhall, Dyson and Alpro across the UK and Europe. He has worked in all media – from ATL advertising, digital and direct response to POS, experiential, social and CRM, and at agencies including VCCP, LIDA/M&C Saatchi and MRM McCann. He joins What’s Possible Group from strategic and creative agency Awkward WorksÒ, which he founded three years ago.
GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, has announced the promotion of Nicola Lewis to CEO of Finecast, WPP’s addressable TV company operated by GroupM, effective immediately. She will be responsible for the strategy and operations of Finecast, including working with local markets to execute global strategies and set growth targets all aimed at making clients’ TV advertising more relevant and effective to their consumers. A highly respected media executive with extensive experience across all channels and digital integrations, Lewis was most recently Finecast’s first Global Chief Growth Officer where she led engagement with agencies and clients and built partnerships with media owners worldwide. Prior to joining Finecast, Lewis was Chief Investment Officer of GroupM Australia where she was responsible for driving innovation and leading commercial growth.
Project44, a supply chain visibility platform, has announced Vivek Kundra has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO) to drive overall operational execution and help scale the company through rapid growth. Kundra comes to project44 with more than 20 years of experience building teams and scaling organizations, having served as COO at Sprinklr, Executive Vice President of Salesforce and the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States, appointed by President Obama. Kundra was instrumental in scaling and leading Sprinklr to its IPO. Under his leadership, Sprinklr successfully grew its revenue and headcount and developed a strong operational cadence to prepare for life as a public company. As the first CIO of the United States, Kundra managed more than $80 billion in technology investments at one of the world’s largest information technology organizations, and he worked closely with Congress and Fortune 500 CEOs to help drive the country’s digital transformation agenda
Aligning with ambitions for the year ahead, sister companies FeastBox and Red Rickshaw assemble its senior team of experts to supercharge growth across 2022. Promoting Liam Howard-Jones (previously Head of Growth) to Chief Marketing Officer and a position on the Board, his new role will lead the progressive plans in place to significantly scale both businesses. The Board position will see Howard-Jones become a key decision maker within the business, supporting on strategic direction and the future of both companies.
Sprout.ai – the insurance technology company reimagining the insurance claims process – has appointed Roi Amir, former Tractable executive, to the position of Chief Executive Officer. Niels Thone, Co-Founder will step down as CEO, taking on a new role at the company as Chief Growth Officer. Amir has an impressive track record of leading large global software teams developing B2B software products. He has deep operational and commercial experience in CTO and CCO positions. He will be responsible for leading Sprout’s global team, serving the company’s existing enterprise customers and scaling the company. In his previous role as VP of Engineering for Tractable, an insurtech AI company, Amir was instrumental in scaling the customer base and revenue, helping secure Tractable’s Unicorn valuation in June 2021. Before joining Tractable, Amir was the Chief Customer Officer at Zift Solutions, a global provider of channel management solutions. Niels Thone will now take on the new role of Chief Growth Officer, responsible for revenue-generating activities as Sprout.ai continues on its fast global growth trajectory.
Website design and development agency Kitty has appointed a new Technical Director, Craig Dodd. His previous roles have included Creative Technology Director at Space66 and Head of Development at Addictive Pixel, an independent agency embedded within Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Dodd joins to assist Rob Knight, Managing Director at Kitty, in the growth of the agency with a focus on a recruitment drive to double the agency headcount by end of 2022. Dodd will also be instrumental in increasing the technical offering to clients by expanding the platforms and applications offered by Kitty. This wealth of knowledge comes from Dodd’s experience at Space66, which he joined in 2014 as Creative Technology Director overseeing all aspects of strategic planning and leveraging current and emerging technologies for clients including Lynx, Audi and Virgin Media.
BYJU’S, the edtech company, has announced the senior appointment of Stephen Jull as Vice President of Business Development for the UK. Jull will lead the UK business, accelerate growth and advance the company’s mission to make high-quality learning accessible to students everywhere. Jull joins BYJU’S from GeoGebra, a recent acquisition in the BYJU’S family, where he was part of the founding team that changed the landscape of mathematics education worldwide. Under his leadership as COO and CFO, GeoGebra recorded double-digit YoY revenue growth.
Digital transformation business Code Worldwide has announced five new additions to its senior team. Mark Hastings joins Code Worldwide as its new Managing Director, with a remit to run the day-to day agency operations. Previously Managing Director at Valassis UK, Hastings will focus on client growth at the agency as well as extending Code products and services to partners across the Omnicom Group. He will be reporting directly into Matt McNeany, Code Worldwide’s CEO. He is joined by Jon Salt, who has been appointed to the position of Managing Partner at Code Worldwide and Global Platforms Lead at TeamX, who are leading Omnicom’s work on the Mercedes-Benz global account. Previously Digital Platform & Product Director at VMLY&R, he will look after the OneWeb RE Team with responsibility for the strategic management and operation of OneWeb for Mercedes-Benz Group.
Jessica Vo is also joining the team as Global Implementation and Client Service Operations Director, alongside Fahad Shiltagh as VP, Operations and Lucas Galan as Head of Data Science Product. Vo has been brought into the business to build its capabilities in relation to supporting global clients with their implementation, focusing on automation and data. She will be driving time efficiencies, whilst aligning with clients’ strategic goals and data analytics. Shiltagh was previously Director of Programme Management at Wunderman Thompson Technology. With a remit to help join up service offerings in response to increasing amounts of integrated work across the group, he will work alongside Jessica and the wider team to scale up its global programme offering. Completing the line-up, Galan is charged with scaling & innovating Code’s data product set to sit alongside its adZU content automation product. Galan, who joins from fellow Omnicom agency, Flamingo, is starting by pioneering Code’s Content Intelligence product – which combines AI with Machine Learning to produce automated content recommendations for cross-channel personalized marketing.
VaynerMedia London has announced the appointment of Allan Blair as the agency’s new Head of Strategy. Coming from Engine Creative London where he spent 4 years as Head of Strategy, Blair is set to join the agency on 21st February reporting directly to Managing Director Sarah Baumann. Blair is the second senior hire to have come from Engine in the past few months, with the appointment of Daisy Domenghini as Head of Client partnerships in October, who was previously Global Client MD at Engine Creative. Blair has 20 years’ experience working across the marketing and communications sector in PR, brand communications and digital. Cutting his teeth client-side before moving over to the agency world, Blair has led strategy at some of London’s leading agencies including at DDB, Tribal Worldwide and J. Walter Thompson.
Boutique digital marketing firm GA Agency has announced the appointment of 6 new specialists over the last two months, continuing a period of sustained growth – expanding its SEO, Data, Content, Paid Search and Social Commerce teams. GA Agency has a growing in-house multilingual team with a total of 11 languages currently covered. New hires Bonnie Yung and Melina Lyraki will enable the agency to expand into the Chinese and Greek markets respectively. Yung comes in as a Paid Social Specialist having previously held the role of Social Ads Manager at Fevaworks Solution in Hong Kong before moving to the UK. She has over 4 years’ experience in Social Commerce and content. Lyraki joins GA Agency as SEO Manager following a three-year stint at Perfomics, a SEO agency in the Publicis Group, where she held the same role.
Teaming up with Melina in the SEO department is Andrea Lo Giudice and Callum McCormick. Giudice, who joins as a SEO Specialist, is an Italian native with over five years’ experience in SEO and good expertise in digital PR having honed his skills at Koral International Group in Malta before moving to the UK. McCormick is GA’s new UK Native SEO Specialist. He brings with him over 3 years of experience working in SEO at Wavemakers and will also be working on SEO python projects at GA. GA Agency’s acquisition of talents with strong experience at renowned digital agencies continues with the appointments of Rebecca Lacey and Chiara Daniele. Lacey is a Content Marketing Specialist with 4+ years of digital ads, SEO and content marketing experience. Previously at Clever Business Websites, she will lead the firm’s content marketing efforts. Daniele, formerly of VCCP Media Agency, is the new Digital Ads Specialist at GA. She has a BA in fashion marketing and is an Italian native, adding to the agency’s localised expertise.
Dae.mn, the consultancy that helps businesses to get the most out of technology, has announced the appointment of Judith Batchelar OBE, and Heath Jackson as Senior Board Advisors, to sustain a period of growth and help to deliver on Dae.mn’s brand values. Judith Batchelar brings her wealth of experience to Dae.mn after 16 years with Sainsbury’s as Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Director. Batchelar was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to farming and the food industry and has just returned from COP26. She also sits on the government’s Food and Drink Sector Council, is a non-executive director of the Environment Agency and the Rugby Players Association and is a trustee of the Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project, as well as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Heath Jackson has over 30 years of experience in the IT industry and joins Dae.mn from KPMG where he headed up its transformation practice and took the lead on several projects for its platinum clients. Prior to his time at KPMG, Jackson occupied the role of Director at management and consulting firm Xantus Consulting, where his experience in business development was pivotal and led to its multi-million-pound sale.
Martech SaaS provider Infinity has appointed Penny Thorpe as its VP of Customer Success. The role will elevate the level of service the business can offer to both customers and partners. Thorpe brings with her 11 years of experience in developing and implementing customer success strategies, gained with switchboard and business services provider, ComXo. She is passionate about optimising the customer journey, particularly through creating seamless communication experiences, and will support Infinity’s exciting growth plans following strategic investment and the acquisition of ResponseTap.
DeGould, the automated vehicle inspection expert, has announced the appointment of its new CEO, Mathew Holloway, marking an accelerated period of growth for the company. With 20 years of experience scaling and commercialising new products and services, Holloway is an engineer by training and has founded and led three successful high growth technology businesses before this appointment. He joins DeGould at a pivotal moment in its growth story. Holloway takes over the role of CEO from Ed Jones, who will remain with the company as CCO to further support the expansion of the business and the addition of new customers.
