Independent creative agency Atomic London has announced the appointment of Nicky Vita as its Head of Strategy to lead on an exciting new chapter for the agency and to help drive its accelerated growth journey. Vita joins from VCCP London where she spent just over seven years, and most recently held the role of joint Head of Planning. She was part of the pitch team behind VCCP’s recent appointment to Primark’s global creative account, and also worked on clients including Cadbury UK, Maynards Bassetts, Charlie Bigham’s and O2, for which she helped to develop the award-winning “Oops” campaign. Her work on LinkedIn has also won accolades from the Marketing Society and Marketing Week, plus several creative awards. In her new role at Atomic London, Vita will lead on the agency’s unified creative proposition in partnership with Managing Director Louise Rudaizky and John Cherry, who joined as Executive Creative Director from Mother last year. The move follows Steve Hopkins’ decision to launch his own consultancy business. He will continue to work with Atomic in that capacity for the foreseeable future.
PinPoint Media has appointed former Oliver UK Group Chief Operating Officer, Chris Woodward, to its newly formed advisory board. The advisory board has been formed to help PinPoint Media CEO and Founder, Oliver Bruce, sustain double-digit growth in the UK and accelerate international expansion. Chris Woodward is the first member of the advisory board and will be shortly be joined by a senior executive from The&Partnership and a former senior executive from We Are Social.
Customer engagement agency RAPP UK announced the appointment of Terence Vieyra as Senior Vice President of People. Based in London, Vieyra will head up a People team of 10 and be responsible for championing RAPP’s purpose of ‘Standing up for Individuality’. As SVP People, Vieyra will be an integral part of the UK Senior Leadership team, working closely with CEO Gabby Ludzker to boost RAPP’s unique culture of individuality and high performance. His main focus will be on the People function at RAPP in the UK, overseeing strategy development and execution to attract and keep top talent. Vieyra will also be responsible for RAPP’s EMEA offices to ensure a unified and positive approach to people management across the region. With a background in disruptive creative and technology industries, Vieyra joins RAPP with valuable experience from his time at Kobalt Music Group, leading HR and facilities teams in major hubs such as Los Angeles, New York, and London serves as a solid foundation for his new role. Notably, Vieyra played a pivotal role in Kobalt Music Group’s data and tech revolution, building the people infrastructure to support its hyper-growth period. He was also part of the leadership team that managed Kobalt’s sale to Sony, where he led on the complex employee changes.
Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the media services division of Omnicom Group Inc., has named Kiran Bance DEI Director of OMG UK, effective immediately. In her new role, Bance – who was previously Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Macmillan Cancer Support – will drive DEI strategy and implementation across OMG’s UK operations, working closely with the group’s Leadership and People teams, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Partners. During her tenure at Macmillan, Bance successfully created the charity’s first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. She was responsible for bringing together both the internal and external mission to be more representative and to be there for ‘everyone’ living with Cancer. Throughout her career, Bance has successfully embedded positive change across a number of renowned organisations. She successfully drove greater gender and ethnic representation at the Bank of England, and at ITN she set the strategy to focus on increasing female and ethnic representation and participation both on screen and behind the scenes. She has won numerous awards, including a silver at Cannes for the casting of Macmillan’s ‘Whatever It Takes’ campaign in ‘20/’21. In her new role, Bance will further strengthen OMG UK’s focus on building an inclusive culture that champions diversity, building upon the work to date that has seen the group recognised as the most progressive in the industry at the Media For All (MEFA) awards 2023, winning the inaugural Advertising Association All In Champion Award, and the Female Frontiers 2023 Diverse Inclusive Workplace award.
Direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform Tradebyte has announced the promotion of Freya Dickens to Head of Sales as the leading integrator for fashion brands and marketplaces continues its growth in the UK market. In her new role, Dickens will lead the development of Tradebyte’s UK operations, building both the sales and customer success teams. Dickens’s work will focus on ensuring Tradebyte’s 50+ customers have dedicated support in the UK, in addition to expanding the company’s UK customer base across both brand and retailer sectors. Dicken’s background as a fashion buyer arms her with strong knowledge of brand operations and the challenges they face. Her more than four years’ experience as Strategic Sales Manager at Tradebyte also gives her the insight required to develop the UK support for brands and retailers to reach their desired marketplaces across Europe and increase e-commerce sales.
Freshworks Inc., has announced the appointment of Abe Smith as the company’s Chief of Global Field Operations. He will be responsible for leading field sales worldwide as Freshworks grows upmarket and new business increasingly comes from field sales. Smith brings nearly 25 years of experience at public software companies Zoom, Oracle and Cisco (WebEx), leading teams responsible for building relationships to top enterprise customers and driving more than $1 billion in revenue. Most recently serving as the Head of International at Zoom, Smith scaled the field sales organization outside the United States as the company grew from roughly $300 million to over $4 billion during his tenure.
Secret Sales, the platform and marketplace for off-price retail in fashion, sportswear and beauty, has announced Anthony Farrow as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). This strategic move aligns with the company’s commitment to intensify its focus on technology investments, in tandem with its expansion efforts across Europe. Prior to joining Secret Sales, Farrow was a Managing Director at the world’s biggest global professional services company, Accenture. In 2015 the firm acquired The Javelin Group, where Farrow had served as CTO, to spearhead its work in digital retail transformation. For 23 years Farrow has worked with global leading fashion brands, including Burberry and The Kering Group, helping to design and implement commercially successful retail solutions.
Manchester based digital marketing firm I-COM has announced the appointment of new Managing Director Ravi Bhalla at the start of 2024. Bhalla took over the role in January 2024 from Mike Blackburn who had held the role since 2006. Bhalla himself is a founding member of the I-COM team and moves to the Managing Director role from his previous position as Technical Director. In his new role as MD, Bhalla will be working closely with the agency’s management team, focusing on client success and growth and creating a strong business for all shareholders.
Wavemaker UK has appointed Sam Bird as Managing Director, Content and Brand Experience. Reporting to Ian Stevens, Chief Investment Officer, Bird will lead the development of the agency’s content and creative capabilities, including content partnerships, innovation, sports and gaming. Bird joins Wavemaker from OMD, where he has held multiple senior-level positions over the last decade, leading on services for blue-chip brands such as Levi’s, Burberry, Google and Pepsico. Most recently, as Managing Partner, Head of Creative Services, he played a key role in driving creative media across the agency and growth across OMDs creative capabilities. Bird also helped secure several notable global pitch wins for the agency and global network.
