Dubit, the creator of metaverse experiences, games, and events for brands, has made its second marquee signing in two weeks, announcing the hire of its new Finance Director (FD) Paul Bone from Chelsea Digital Ventures, a tech-focused spin-out of Chelsea Football Club. Bone joins just a week after the hire of former VP Global Head of Music at Roblox, Jonathan Vlassopulos. Chelsea Digital Ventures leverages Chelsea FC’s expertise and intellectual property to create products and partnerships with appeal across and beyond the team’s fanbase, such as the Blue Fuel range of energy drinks. As CFO and Principal, Bone had responsibility for overall strategy and business planning, modelling and governance across the portfolio. Prior to his time at Chelsea Digital Ventures, Bone held C-suite finance roles at companies including mobile advertising platform, Axonix (now owned by Emodo), South Korean video games developer and publisher, NCsoft, and social game business We R Interactive.
Digital marketing agency Precis Digital has announced the appointment of Jess Dickenson as their new COO. Dickenson, who was previously Head of Client Strategy at the business, takes over from Christian and will report directly to Managing Director, Rhys Cater. In her new role, Dickenson will ensure Precis’s clients stay at the forefront by building digital maturity, implementing efficient strategies for growth, and navigating the intersection between marketing, data, creative, and technology. Prior to joining Precis, Dickenson was at MoneySuperMarket, quickly progressing to manage performance media for the Insurance and Home Services verticals with budgets exceeding £40m per year.
Sourcepoint, the privacy compliance platform of record for the digital marketing ecosystem, has announced a key new hire in the US. With 25 years of experience in the programmatic advertising industry, Chris Chapman takes on the role of Chief Technology Officer, and Chloe Grutchfield has been promoted to Chief Product Officer from Senior Vice President, Product. Chapman has held senior roles at Adsafe Media and Integral Ad Science, as well as co-founding Sailthru and his own company Saferoute in 2006. In addition to its company expansion, Sourcepoint has also announced the promotion of Chloe Grutchfield to Chief Product Officer, having originally taken the position of Senior Vice President, Product. Chloe was previously co-founder of Redbud, joining Sourcepoint after it acquired the company and has been instrumental in the expansion of Sourcepoint’s Privacy Lens product offering since.
PayByPhone announces the appointment of Jonny Combe as global CEO. Thirty-six-year-old Combe, already part of the senior leadership team, will work alongside current CEO Andy Gruber, who has been in the role for four years, during a transition period starting 1 July 2022. Gruber will exit the role effective 1 August 2022, to take up a senior management position within PayByPhone’s parent-company Volkswagen Financial Services AG. Gruber will also sit on the PayByPhone supervisory board, to which Combe will report, headed by Stefan Imme, Chief Digital Officer, Volkswagen Financial Services AG. Before joining PayByPhone, Combe held several high-profile management roles at BMW Group, looking after its environment, real estate, mobility, and innovation team in EMEA.
Pure-play customer data platform (CDP) BlueConic has announced the addition of Kimberly Lee Minor to its board of directors. Minor is a senior marketing executive who has held roles at a number of global brands, including Macys, LBrands, Footlocker, and Iconix. She is currently president and chief commercial officer at Bandier, the premier destination for luxury athletic and athleisure wear. She also currently serves as the CEO for Bumbershoot, a boutique consulting firm that provides cultural and market insights for inclusive, equitable, and diverse representation across brand, content, product, and customer experience.
Communications agency Battenhall has appointed Elise Pearce as Senior Associate Director in a bid to expand the agency’s digital leadership and innovation. Pearce brings more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing and communications strategy and has worked with a wide variety of global companies including Lenovo, Motorola, Castrol, Campari Group and Mattel. As part of a wider senior leadership expansion, Jonny Atter, who leads the data and insights team, has also been promoted to Senior Associate Director, having been with Battenhall for seven years. Atter has been instrumental in the growth of key accounts, including leading insurance company Aviva, which has contributed to Battenhall achieving record revenues of more than £6m in the past financial year. Elise Pearce joins Battenhall from 3 Monkeys Zeno, the London arm of Zeno Group, where she was Digital Associate Director. She will now head up a portfolio of blue-chip client teams across the UK and US, with a focus on social strategy, digital innovation, data and insights, and influencer marketing.
Jeeves, the financial platform for global startups, has announced the appointment of Roberto (Rori) Alvarez Cadavieco as General Manager of EMEA. Responsible for growing the fintech’s presence across the region, Alvarez Cadavieco will be focused on helping more startups scale internationally and combating the struggle many face accessing finance through traditional providers. Based in Madrid, Alvarez Cadavieco returns to Europe with over a decade of experience in the burgeoning Latin America startup ecosystem, where SMBs represent 99.5% of businesses in the region.
Stink Studios, the creative advertising and digital experience company, has named Adrian Friend as its new Technology Director. Along with building Stink Studio’s technical capabilities, Friend is responsible for inspiring and mentoring a team already delivering some of the most exciting projects in the tech sector, and helping to grow that team further. He reports to Jax Ostle-Evans, Managing Director. Friend was previously Technology Director at MediaMonks, working on brands including Starbucks, McLaren Racing and Mondelez, a role he took up in 2020. Prior to this, he was Head of Technology at KHWS, and he has also held roles at FCB Inferno, Isobar and Draw Studio.
Braze, the comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and the brands they love, has announced Astha Malik as its new Chief Marketing Officer, effective June 27. Malik joins Braze following the retirement of former CMO Sara Spivey, earlier this month. Reporting to co-founder and CEO Bill Magnuson, Malik will join the executive leadership team at Braze and will oversee all global marketing functions. A tech industry veteran, Malik brings more than 20 years of experience building brands, driving innovation, and accelerating revenue growth. Most recently, Malik served as Chief Operating Officer of VTEX, where she oversaw the company’s go-to-market and global growth strategy, global marketing, and people operations. Throughout her career, she has also held leadership positions across a number of premier technology companies including Zendesk, Citrix, Sumo Logic, and PagerDuty.
Leeds-based digital marketing agency, Modo25 is expanding its offering with the appointment of Mike Turner as a senior creative designer and Matthew Fraser as digital PR and outreach manager. With over seven years of design industry experience, Turner has previously held roles at Sky Betting and Gaming as a senior designer and an SEO executive and designer at Search Laboratory. Turner brings a range of design skills to the role and will be delivering conceptual design, branding, banner visuals, landing pages, A/B testing and all creative and design work for Modo25 clients as well as for the agency and its MarTech platform, BOSCO™. Fraser is joining the agency with over six years of traditional and digital PR experience from roles held at communications agency Faith, Jaywing PR and Grayling. He graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a degree in Public Relations. He has a variety of skills and knowledge across digital PR and SEO from his PR roles, having previously worked on a range of B2B and B2C clients including Twisted Automotive, A-SAFE, EW Group, Marks & Spencer and ScS.
Brand consultancy, Interbrand Group, has announced the appointment of Paralympian medallist Anna Johannes as a strategist in its Inclusive Design practice. Working with Marianne Waite, Director of Inclusive Design, Johannes will lead the practice from Interbrand New York, supporting the global perspective of the Group’s inclusivity work. An experienced speaker and thought leader, Johannes will work to combine her lived experience with Interbrand’s thinking. Born without her left hand and forearm, Johannes began to fight for disability rights and social justice from a young age, coaching low-income families, Wounded Warriors, and the future generation of Paralympic athletes. After a professional career of swimming and participating in the 2012 Paralympic Games – winning a bronze medal – Johannes has taken her skills from the pool to the realm of business to continue that same fight. Johannes will work with global organisations – spanning sectors as varied as FMCG, Apparel, Luxury and Fast-Food, in their pursuit of ‘Barrier-Free Brand Experience’, breaking down the design divide by embedding inclusivity into the heart of every brand experience. With six years experience in the communications industry, Johannes also comes to Interbrand with a lifetime of experience in finding her own personal workarounds, and has extensive expertise to share with those in a position to change the systems that have been holding back people with disabilities for decades.
Propack has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of Andy Cromack as operations director. Cromack has joined the technology-led print and direct mail solutions provider to spearhead the firm’s commitment to developing an outstanding service delivery model and improving quality and efficiency throughout its team and processes. He previously held the role of operations director at digital print and direct mail agency Gecko and has a wealth of industry experience, having started his career with a printing apprenticeship upon leaving school.
Precisely has announced that Anna Langhorne has been appointed as Chief Privacy Officer. With more than 20 years in technology, research, and privacy and data protection compliance, Langhorne joins Precisely at a pivotal moment to elevate its data stewardship as the company continues its growth trajectory. As Chief Privacy Officer, Langhorne is responsible for maturing Precisely’s privacy and data protection programme and providing leadership for ethical data stewardship. Prior to joining Precisely, Langhorne was global data privacy counsel at Regeneron, in New York, where she collaborated with senior leadership and business units to establish and operationalise the company’s global privacy programme.
British AdTech pioneer Playrcart is delighted to welcome Debbie Conetta to its management team in the role of Commercial Retail Director. The newly-created role will involve sourcing and managing new retailer relationships across beauty, consumer packaged goods (CPG), grocery and more. Conetta will lead the retail function. Joining from a previous new business role at Go Direct Marketing, Conetta brings more than 15 years of experience in client-facing retail businesses focused on the UK, European and US markets. She comes to the role with substantial experience in selecting the right technology products to drive growth, including working cross industry as an integral part of a brand’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) function, and also building relationships with external partners.
Andy Gladwin, Head of Global Mobile GTM at Cheetah Digital, steps into Mobile Ecosystem Forum’s (MEF) newly created MEF Ambassador role to support and structure the discussion of personalisation and relevance in mobile marketing communications. Voted by the industry as being among the Top 25 Most Influential in Mobile in the ROCCO 100, Gladwin is a recognised thought leader and strategist with more than 15 years of experience in the mobile messaging market across various levels in the mobile value chain. His unique, deep understanding of CPaaS, SaaS and enterprise business drivers led the Mobile Ecosystem Forum to appoint him as its Ambassador for Enterprise Engagement. As MEF Ambassador, Gladwin will work to drive initiatives to make MEF’s thought leadership consumable to enterprises to succinctly address their needs.
Reprise, the world’s largest performance marketing network, has announced that it has appointed Jessica Chapplow as the organisation’s Managing Partner, Head of Commerce. Chapplow will lead Reprise’s eCommerce efforts across the UK and Ireland, distilling Reprise’s proposition and developing new services and operational models to accelerate growth in the eCommerce space. Chapplow specialises in Digital Transformation, focusing on the role that cutting-edge technologies play ranging from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Augmented Reality. In her previous roles, she has led Havas’ Commerce agency, Havas Market, advising clients on retail strategies and consulting on implementing best practices for omnichannel innovation. Chapplow has also held the post of Head of Digital Transformation, overseeing LVMH at MediaCom.
Mambu, the SaaS cloud banking platform, has welcomed four new senior hires as it embarks on the next stage of its ambitious growth. The fintech has appointed Werner Knoblich as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Fernando Zandona as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Tripp Faix as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Sabrina Dar as Chief of Staff to the CEO. Knoblich and Zandona both join from global hypergrowth, customer-centric environments – a key element to Mambu’s value proposition. Knoblich will be working to capitalize on the market opportunity for cloud banking software and drive increased value for customers. He was previously responsible for software development company Red Hat’s expansion across EMEA, and oversaw 100 fold growth throughout his 18-year tenure. Ex-Amazon Web Services and Microsoft executive, Zandona, will lead in developing the next chapter of Mambu’s technical and engineering capabilities. With over 20 years experience delivering results in high performance environments, Zandona has a proven track record leading large teams and overseeing go-to-market growth, product development and strategy. Faix will join on 15 July and serve as Mambu’s new CFO, bringing over 20 years of finance experience. Prior to joining Mambu, Faix was CFO at Marqeta where he oversaw a fourfold increase in net revenue growth and helped lead Marqeta’s initial public offering in 2021. Mambu has also appointed former Cisco senior executive Sabrina Dar, in a newly-created Chief of Staff role to support its continued global expansion. Having worked across three continents and after 21 years at Cisco, Dar joins Mambu to help drive operational excellence in line with Mambu’s scale-up plan. She’ll bring her experience across multiple roles and functions to bear as an integrator and communicator within Mambu – focused on priority initiatives for the CEO and wider business.
Walr, the res-tech company behind the Walr data creation platform, has appointed Ben Walton as its first chief commercial officer (CCO). Walton joins with over twenty years’ experience in market research, most recently as CCO at System1 Research. Prior to this, Walton spent eight years at GfK where he had global responsibility for the creation and implementation of the go-to-market strategy for GfK’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based prescriptive analytics solution.
Guidewire has announced that Sopra Steria, a leader in consulting, digital services, and software development, has joined Guidewire PartnerConnect as a Consulting alliance member at the Select level for the EMEA region. Sopra Steria’s extended team of Guidewire experts provides planning, deployment, and maintenance support, helping clients accelerate their digital journey, automating and streamlining processes.
