Saatchi & Saatchi has appointed Claire Hollands as its new CEO. Hollands joins from MullenLowe, where she held the same role. She will report to Charlie Rudd, CEO of Publicis Groupe UK’s creative practice. With a career spanning more than two decades, Hollands joined MullenLowe in 2021. She has spearheaded a successful change agenda for the business, leading it through the integration of three agencies (MullenLowe London, MullenLowe Profero and MullenLowe Salt) into one operation. Hollands’ appointment is the second addition Saatchi & Saatchi has made to its leadership team this year. Earlier this summer, the agency announced that Ruth Bates had been promoted to the newly created role of chief data officer.
Publisher-powered social and influencer agency The Wild by Jungle has appointed Jade Raad as Chief Growth Officer. In a newly created role for the business, Raad will be responsible for scaling the agency and driving commercial growth, with a focus on devising media, brand and digital content strategies. She will also be accountable for client relationships and overseeing and analysing new business performance. Raad will report into The Wild’s CEO, Melissa Chapman.
VoCoVo, the retail communications specialist, has announced the appointment of Martin Smethurst as Chief Customer Officer. Smethurst brings a wealth of experience to the VoCoVo leadership team and will enable the company to further enhance its relationships with customers as it continues to support many of Europe’s largest retailers, as well accelerating its expansion into new territories, including North America.
iProspect, a dentsu company has appointed Chris Ashworth to Chief Strategy Officer and Jess Roper to Head of Media Creativity. Ashworth will report into James Bailey, President UK&I at iProspect, and Roper will report into Ashworth. The two appointments complete iProspect’s UK strategy leadership team, joining Libby Darley, Head of Planning and Grace Letley, Head of Strategy, who also report into Ashworth.
Experience Management company Qualtrics has announced the appointment of Rachita Sundar as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Leadership Team. Sundar brings more than two decades of experience at high-growth and industry leading companies to Qualtrics, where she will lead the global finance organisation and provide strategic advice and support to help accelerate the company’s next phase of growth. She joins from HubSpot, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), and prior to this spent more than a decade in finance leadership roles at Microsoft.
Creative agency Neverland has promoted Managing Director Josh Harris to the newly created role of CEO. Harris will focus on creative innovation, clients, and people to help drive the evolution of the agency. In his new role as CEO, he will continue to lead the charge on growth of the business and will put a large focus on bringing in a more diverse range of talent to the agency and industry.
Media buying platform Adform has announced three significant promotions within the finance and IT departments. After joining Adform in 2022 as VP of Business & Corporate Finance, Jonas Hjorth Jacobsen has been promoted to SVP, Business & Corporate Finance to oversee strategic financial planning, business intelligence and corporate development. Aurimas Butavičius has been promoted to SVP, Finance and Treasury to lead Finance Operations with a focus on high-level financial oversight. Maria Juhl Christensen will serve as SVP, IT Infrastructure and Security, with a particular emphasis on Adform’s security posture, streamlining cross-functional processes and project management.
