NatureMetrics, the global nature intelligence company, is pleased to announce the expansion of its Nature Strategy team in response to the increasing global demand for governments, corporates and financial institutions to set and meet new nature and biodiversity objectives. Hannah Skeates, who joins as Director of Nature Strategy for Finance & Environmental Markets, offers extensive experience driving change in the sector, and will focus on partnering with financial institutions that are looking to integrate nature into their activities. Prior to joining NatureMetrics, Skeates has been driving the mainstreaming of sustainable investing and sustainable finance initiatives for over a decade. Skeates has held leadership positions at major finance industry firms, including Global Head of ESG at Wells Fargo Asset Management, Head of Global ESG Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, and was iShares’ Global Head of Sustainable Investments at BlackRock. Amy Sellers has been appointed as Principal Consultant, bringing expertise across scalable solutions and geospatial finance including embedding risks associated with carbon markets, governmental grants and schemes, sustainable agriculture and nature quantification and valuation. Sellers founded and led the nature risk team in her previous role, delivering end-to-end nature strategy and solutions for financial institutions and large corporates. Sellers previously held the position of Climate & Nature Risk Manager within Deloitte’s Risk Advisory team, further bolstered by previous roles at Bank of America, J.P. Morgan and WWF. Alison Jones is an experienced environmental professional, joining as Principal Nature Strategist from Arcadis, Capitals Coalition and Little Blue Research – navigating the landscape of nature-related frameworks and disclosure initiatives. Isadora Ferreira joins as Principal Nature Strategist, bringing in-depth knowledge of nature strategy, corporate sustainability and environmental frameworks. Previously a Net Zero Strategy Consultant at Monitor Deloitte, Ferreira holds nature and climate expertise, co-developing food and nature go-to-market strategies and business development initiatives. Ferreira joins NatureMetrics to enable organisations to make critical decisions on their natural capital, from risk analysis and investment assessments to management and mitigation strategy.
In a move that sees the agency doubling down on its strategic growth, TBWA\London has hired Joint London’s award-winning strategist Laura Kirkby-Jones as Strategy Partner. Reporting into TBWA\London CSO Sandie Dilger, Kirkby-Jones will take the lead on the agency’s Hilton account and will share departmental leadership responsibilities with current Strategy Partner Jess Smith, further strengthening the growing and evolving strategy department. With six years experience at Joint London, Kirkby-Jones has an impressive track record in managing and growing a strategy team. Kirkby-Jones has a broad strategy skillset having worked in digital, PR and brand strategy roles over the course of her career so will bring a new perspective to the TBWA department. She has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious brands, including Amazon and Always. Kirkby-Jones will partner with Smith who joined the agency at the end of 2022 and leads the McVitie’s and Ginsters account to manage the day to day of the strategy department. Their collaborative efforts will extend to training and development initiatives, ensuring the team is at the forefront of industry trends and bringing TBWA’s Disruption methodology to life across the agency, clients and the industry.
ABBYY, a specialist in purpose-built AI for intelligent automation, has announced the appointment of Patrick Jean “PJ” as Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPO/CTO) and a member of the executive management team. PJ has served in several executive engineering and leadership roles over his 20-year career and has a successful track record winning market share that drives demonstrable revenue. He will lead global product and technology teams with a primary focus on accelerating time-to-market for ABBYY’s intelligent document processing and process intelligence solutions to deliver measurable value to global enterprise customers faster. Prior to joining ABBYY, PJ held executive engineering and technology roles at OutSystems, Citrix, and Apttus, and currently serves on the Board for Codility.
Seismic has announced that Russell Webb has joined as Senior Vice President of International Sales and Customer Success. With a track record in accelerating growth for international tech firms, Webb will oversee Seismic’s international business and lead its continued expansion in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. Webb brings more than three decades of enterprise software sales experience in Europe, leading revenue teams at global organizations such as Adobe, Sitecore and Infor. Most recently, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at Unily. Based in London, Webb will report directly to Seismic Chief Revenue Officer and President Hayden Stafford.
North East-based media agency, Route, has appointed one of the UK’s highest profile FMCG marketers to the board as Non-Executive Director. Gareth Turner, former head of marketing for Weetabix and a driving force behind the viral ‘Beans on Bix’ campaign, has over 23 years of experience in national and global roles, marketing some of the country’s biggest household brands, including John Smiths, Bulmers, and Lurpak. His appointment by Route founders and directors Darren Davidson and Ben Dascombe comes as the agency enters a new phase of growth and strategic acceleration. As part of his role, Turner will use his decades of expertise and industry gravitas to hone Route’s ambitious plans, setting the agency up for another year of stellar growth. Having established his strategic marketing consultancy, Big Black Door, in 2022, Turner was approached by Darren and invited to join the board, to provide an additional experienced perspective for the business strategy, identify market opportunities and advise on best practice for ‘big brand’ agency-client relationships.
Global digital marketing business Jellyfish has announced the promotion of Andrea Prosperi as Regional Director, Italy. Having joined in 2021 to run Jellyfish’s client management operations in the country, Prosperi will now be running the business, including sales, partnerships and marketing operations, in this important market. An experienced leader with over 15 years’ experience, Prosperi spent over a decade at Google, specialising in the Google Ads business for the tech and telecommunications sectors. He has a lifelong passion for all things digital, combined with an interest in data’s potential to empower marketing and communications efforts.
WP Engine, the WordPress technology company, announced the appointment of Justin Mongroo as Senior Vice President, Sales. In his role, Mongroo will lead efforts for the North American sales teams and new growth strategies for the region. Mongroo takes on the role with almost 20 years of experience leading sales teams across industry-defining technology companies, including Salesforce, Conga, Intuit and most recently Slack, where he served as Vice President of Commercial Sales. Mongroo has gained experience working with large and small customers in multiple industries. While at Slack, he got a “front row seat” at the intersection of self-serve, product-led and sales-led growth, providing a unique perspective on possibilities for go-to-market strategies working with companies on Slack’s journey from their first $100M to beyond $1B. As SVP of Sales at WP Engine, Mongroo will lead a team of over 100 sales professionals who consult and advise on innovative solutions to build, power, and manage different types of WordPress experiences for large brands and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Great State has unveiled a new leadership team – Jinny Mitchell-Kent and David Chandler have been promoted to the role of joint managing director (MD). The duo replaces, but will report to, Stuart Avery who is stepping back into his position as non-executive chairman. Mitchell-Ken and Chandler will be the driving force behind a new era of Great State. By delivering the transformation capability of an enterprise consultancy and tech partner, with the creativity of an agency Great State will help close the digital expectation gap between brands and their customers. As an experienced leader with a razor-sharp focus on agency operations, Mitchell-Ken steps into the post from her previous position as chief operating officer. She joined Great State over four years ago from tech-enabled ideas and innovation company AKQA where, as Executive Delivery Director, Mitchell-Ken was responsible for high-profile clients such as Rolls-Royce, Dyson, Apple, Tag and Barclays. Chandler has been elevated from his former role as Division Director where he has grown their Defence offering. As a strategic partner, Chandler has gained an unrivalled reputation for ensuring Great State’s clients experience exceptional service and a great return on investment. He joined the agency almost four years ago from Harte Hanks where he held the position of SVP Client Service and worked across several household brands including Samsung, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and BMW.
B2B and corporate PR and communications specialists, AMBITIOUS is closing 2023 by celebrating two new strategic hires and seven new business wins to round off a year of solid growth for the firm. Maria Dickson joins as Marketing Director, a newly created role signalling the agency’s commitment to more integrated campaign activations. She’ll also be leading the agency’s marketing strategy as it looks to expand. Chloe Tonkin also joins as a senior PR consultant and copywriter to support the firm’s growth. With over 12 years of experience working in award-winning communications agencies and most recently leading all national marketing and social media for Girlguiding, Maria Dickson is a seasoned marketer. Having led UK and global agency teams across consumer, pharma and not-for-profit sectors she has extensive experience in developing and implementing integrated strategies. Her career includes roles at Pegasus (now Evoke Mind + Matter) and Edelman, working with clients such as GSK, Bayer and EIT Health. For the last four years, she led all marketing and campaigns at Girlguiding, including a new brand rollout – the largest in the organisation’s 113 year history. Chloe Tonkin has over ten years working agency-side across B2C and B2B-focused sectors, in both the UK and New Zealand. Her experience spans technology, FMCG, healthcare, and beyond. She’s worked on campaigns for big-name clients including Samsung, American Express, HSBC, Specsavers, and Unilever. Her primary area of expertise is in traditional earned PR and media relations, but she also has extensive experience in running influencer programmes for clients like Samsung and Dove.
