Saatchi & Saatchi has announced the appointment of Ruth Bates as Chief Data Officer, a newly created role in the agency’s senior leadership team. Bates, previously Head of Data Arts at Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Groupe UK, will lead the agency’s ambition to use data to understand the complexities of the real world in which audiences, brands and ideas live, and implement those insights across its creative. She will report into Saatchi & Saatchi’s Chair and Chief Strategy Officer, Richard Huntington, working closely with him to create and implement custom, agency-owned products and services that inject real-world audience insights into work for new and existing partners. She will also continue adding her expertise to Publicis Groupe’s portfolio of data-centric products.
Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group, has named Charlie Ebdy Chief Strategy Officer of OMG UK. In this newly created role, Ebdy – who was previously Chief Strategy Officer at OMD UK – will work closely with OMG UK CEO Laura Fenton in driving and shaping the group’s long-term strategic approach to support OMG UK’ s continued growth. He will work closely with strategy leaders across the group’s agencies and specialist service divisions to advance OMG’s strategic output, building on the product development the group has driven to date. He will also be responsible for leveraging OMG’s Agency as a Platform proposition on behalf of its clients. In his previous role at OMD UK, Ebdy headed up a 50-strong department covering strategy, analytics, and effectiveness.
Independent performance media agency Roast has announced the hire of Phil Burgess as Managing Partner. Burgess was previously VP, Client Partner at Essence, where he led integrated media accounts such as L’Oreal and ITV. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of digital agency 360i Europe, before becoming Chief Growth Officer at iCrossing. Roast’s latest hire, Burgess, alongside Lynsey Rollinson and John Barham will be joint Managing Partners. Burgess will focus on client services, Rollinson will lead the integrated media department across OOH, Print, Audio and TV, while Barham remains focused on performance media.
Susanne Plümecke has been appointed as Innocean’s European Chief Operating Officer. Reporting directly to CEO & President of Innocean Europe Sam (Wooksang) Ryu, her role will directly oversee the European business with Innocean’s key clients Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, bringing the operation of the agency offices in Berlin and Frankfurt closer together. Plümecke joins from a Managing Director Germany role at Mediamonks. Before that, she worked for 15 years in leading positions at DDB, the last being Managing Director at DDB Berlin.
ParcelLab has announced the appointment of Giles Whiting as its Chief Executive Officer, having joined the company at the beginning of the year as President. He most recently served as the Managing Director and COO of Forsta (acquired by Press Ganey), where he led sales, customer success, global operations, and strategic initiatives. Alongside this role, he has also been an Operating Advisor at growth investor Verdane, focusing on enhancing operational efficiency and refining go-to-market strategies across the company’s investment portfolio. Earlier, he served as General Manager at Medallia, as President & CEO at Percepta, and as Chief of Staff and Head of Product at TTEC. Whiting began his career serving as a Physicist in the US Air Force and later as a Consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Intentsify, a provider of B2B intent data and AI-powered signal-based marketing programs, made two leadership changes: Co-founder Marc Laplante is returning as Chief Executive and Charlie Allieri has been appointed as President. Laplante, who co-founded Intentsify in 2018, is transitioning from his most recent role as Chairman of the Board. He previously spent 13 years at TechTarget, where he played a role in its transformation from a startup to a publicly traded company. In 2012, he co-founded Prelytix, a predictive analytics business, which was later sold to MRP in 2015. Allieri has been leading Intentsify’s technology and operations function as Chief Operating Officer since 2021. He previously served as the Chief Data Officer of Aberdeen and was the founder of iLantern, a sales trigger solution. Additional executive experience includes roles as CEO of Imperium and President of GTM Acceleration.
