Essence has announced Anthony Reeves will be joining the agency as President, Global Client Partner, working with clients to further integrate the agency’s practice areas of data, analytics, media strategy and creative. He will lead engagement across a small portfolio of Essence’s global clients. Reeves comes to Essence after serving as Managing Partner at Courageous, consulting with Amazon, J&J, Hasbro and other Fortune 200 companies across strategy, brand, creative and platform activation. A proven leader who has worked across creative, technology, commerce and media, Anthony’s background makes him uniquely suited to work with Essence clients to drive the next-level business growth.
Social media agency Born Social has announced Ishmail Omar will be taking on the role of Head of Client Services and James Sackey as Head of Paid Media. Omar joins Born Social following two years working with London ad agency, Lightning Sharks and Swiss non-profit, Bitcoin Association, building out their internal teams to deliver social strategy. He started his career at Facebook marketing partner, StitcherAds, before moving onto iProspect and OMD EMEA. Global brands in Ishmail’s repertoire include: P&G, adidas, British Airways, Bacardi and Intel. Sackey joined Born Social in 2018 from WPP media agency, MEC/Wavemaker, to help build its paid media service – a key growth area for Born Social. After three years of growth, this year they introduced the specialist Media Planning role, designed to bring top-down media strategy and insight to their existing product offering, which will help brands navigate the ever-changing social landscape.
Wavemaker’s Global Chief Strategy Officer has taken on a wider role in a move to link the agency’s strong planning culture closer to its tools, technology and platforms. As Global Chief Strategy and Product Officer, Stuart Bowden will ensure clear communication, continuity and free-flowing provocation between Strategy, where ideas are created, and Product, where ideas are converted into growth for the agency’s clients. The promotion of Stuart Bowden comes after the recent appointments of ex-Accenture Kathryn Spaeth as Global Chief Transformation Officer, Shipra Roy as Global Chief People, Inclusion & Culture Officer and Helen Price as Global Chief Investment Officer.
Twilio has announced two additions to its leadership team. Eyal Manor is joining as Chief Product Officer, and Dana Wagner is joining as Chief Legal Officer. Manor will oversee the execution of Twilio’s future product roadmap, working to deliver on its vision to build the leading customer engagement platform. Wagner will lead the Company’s legal, government affairs, regulatory compliance, and privacy teams as Twilio continues to expand and scale globally. Eyal Manor joins Twilio from Google where he was Vice President and General Manager of Engineering and Product. He has been a driving force within Google’s engineering and product teams for nearly 14 years. Manor helped to build and scale the Google Cloud Platform, Cloud Commerce and Google Ads products including starting Ad Exchange, building YouTube and helping to define Google’s security and policy. He has been an advisor for CapitalG for almost seven years. Dana Wagner will be joining Twilio from Impossible Foods, where he was Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary and oversaw the company’s legal, policy, quality control and security operations. Prior to this, Wagner was the General Counsel of Square, where he built and led the legal, government, compliance, and security teams. Before Square, he led antitrust and consumer protection matters at Google, and prior to that, he held various positions in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Creative agency Art of the Possible has bolstered its digital credentials with the appointment of Alex Pollock to the newly created role of Digital Media Director, following a period of rapid growth. Pollock joins Art of the Possible after nearly seven years as an independent digital consultant working across multiple brands, including Pernod Ricard, Park Hyatt, GlaxoSmithKline and Mont Blanc. With more than thirteen years of global digital experience, Pollock has expertise across social media, paid media, digital marketing and community management. He has worked both client- and agency-side, holding positions at Havas, Carphone Warehouse, BP and PRS for Music, amongst others. Pollock is also a board member at Swindon Town FC’s Supporters Trust, and co-founder and director of Men’s Mental Health Swindon, a local creative initiative aiming to reduce the stigma attached to mental ill-health and improve mental fitness.
Xero, the global small business platform, has announced the appointment of experienced technology executive Alex von Schirmeister as Managing Director for the UK & EMEA. Von Schirmeister brings more than 25 years of senior leadership experience to the role, having worked in ecommerce, payments, telecommunications, FMCG and consultancy. Prior to Xero, von Schirmeister led the European operations for small business payments technology company SumUp, and before that held senior leadership positions at Electrocomponents plc and eBay, where he gained exposure to a large constituency of merchant sellers. Gary Turner, who in July announced his retirement after 12 years in the role, will step down on 31 December 2021 to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities. Turner will continue to play a part in Xero’s growth, in a global advisory capacity, as well as building his own portfolio career.
Martech SaaS provider, Infinity, has appointed Hannah Delaney as its VP of Marketing. Delaney will support Infinity’s ambitious growth plans, following strategic investment and the acquisition of ResponseTap – confirming its position as the leading Conversation Intelligence partner for brands and agencies. Delaney brings more than 20 years of experience in IT and consumer electronics marketing, having developed and implemented brand, channel and digital marketing strategies for global organisations including Samsung Electronics. At Samsung, Delaney led the design and delivery of the company’s channel marketing strategy to attract and retain customers and drive an increase in premium market share and category growth. She also brings extensive experience of building high-performing teams at HTC, Exertis and Nokia. To support its international growth, Infinity has appointed Alejandra Chamorro who joins the business’s Spanish team as Agency Account Director. With extensive agency-side experience, Chamorro will focus on extending Infinity’s agency partnership network in Spain, working alongside Country Manager, Jose Benavides.
Analytic Partners has strengthened its leadership in EMEA by announcing the appointment of Jonathan Barrett as Senior Vice President. In his role Barrett will be focusing on accelerating existing and new customer business growth across the entire EMEA region, and with him brings a wealth of experience in growing businesses and creating customer value gained in leadership roles at technology brands such as Cisco, Dell and Microsoft. Before joining AP, he was SVP, EMEA & APAC, and Global Head of News & Media at Dataminr, responsible for the international go-to-market and hyper-growth of its award-winning SaaS AI and Machine Learning platform.
The independent creative agency, The Corner, have strengthened their Talent and Influencer Marketing and Account Management offerings, with two key promotions. Craig Knox has been promoted to Managing Director of Talent and Influencer Marketing, and Taya Dufall has been announced as the new Head of Account Management. Beginning his career within influencer marketing in January 2014; taking on the role of Talent and Brand PR Manager at PMK. BMC, and later the role of Senior Influencer Marketing Manager. As Managing Director of Talent and Influencer Marketing at The Corner, Knox is responsible for all talent. Taya Dufall has been promoted from her role as Business Director at The Corner, which she held for over two years, to Head of Account Management. Dufall originally joined as an Account Manager, and over the last six years has progressed through positions to become a vital part of The Corner. During these six years, she has created and delivered campaigns in every channel, ranging from big TV to reactive social, and everything in between.
impact.com, the global partnership management platform, has announced that HubSpot veteran Kim Walsh has joined the company as Chief Growth Officer. Walsh’s role is to support long-term commercial success by maintaining alignment and customer-centricity among all of impact.com’s go-to-market initiatives, working alongside the leaders of sales, marketing, channel partnerships, revenue operations and the APAC and EMEA regions. Prior to joining impact.com, Walsh spent more than a decade at HubSpot leading sales and partnerships teams. Most recently, she was Global VP, Go-to-Market Partnerships where she was responsible for growing the product and partner-led ecosystem.
Anzu has announced the addition of video games sales leadership veteran David Cox as a strategic advisor. Responsible for launching some of the biggest games franchises in the Americas, including Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, RockBand, GTA V, NBA 2K, and PlayStation 3 hardware, software, and accessories, Cox brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise from an established career spent within the video games industry in North America. During his career, Cox has developed a critical resume of commercial sales success and leadership with key retailers, distribution, and e-commerce business partners, including Walmart, GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. He has overseen several key areas, including platform transitions, product launches, product lifecycle management, and strategic marketing events.
Engine B, a next-generation AI-driven audit technology company, has announced the appointment of Bala Sinha as Product Lead. Sinha brings over two decades of experience in the technology services sector working in strategic product management, proposition management, account management, client services, go-to-market, and real-time data operations. Sinha joins Engine B from global corporate data provider Dun and Bradstreet where he was Principal Product Manager in the Third-Party Risk and Compliance team. Before that, he held roles in product and proposition management at ICE Data Services and Refinitiv. At Engine B, Sinha will be responsible for the direction of the company roadmap and will work closely with Engine B’s engineering and business teams to execute critical deliverables.
Spark Foundry, the UK Acceleration agency, has bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Katharine Baker as its new Chief Client Officer. Baker, who previously worked for Blue 449, is returning to the industry, and Publicis Media, following a two-year career break. In this new role, she will be responsible for developing client relationships to deliver maximum value and growth for clients. Baker reports into Pete Edwards, CEO, Spark Foundry UK. Previously, Baker spent almost 15 years at Blue 449 in various roles, most recently as Managing Partner, where she led planning across brands such as Asda, M&S, Barclays and Weetabix. In total, she has over 17 years of communications planning experience across a wealth of sectors including retail, travel, tech, finance, luxury and FMCG.
amBX has announced that it has appointed Jonathan Couch as Product and Solutions Director, a brand-new role for the business. As an experienced Product and Engineering professional with an extensive smart technology and product development background, Couch will bridge the gap between commercial and technical and assume responsibilities. As a well-known and respected industry expert, Couch has worked for many established organisations, including Aurora, enModus and Microlights. He is an IoT and innovation champion and speaker across the globe with experience of working with a number of diverse integration partners.
