Good-Loop – a global ad tech for good company that converts people’s attention to ads into donations to good causes – is expanding its senior team following its Series A round of $6.1M (£4.5M). Claire Gleeson-Landry has been promoted to Head of Investment and Sustainable Media, where she will be responsible for driving forward Good-Loop’s green media proposition, which helps marketers measure and reduce the negative environmental impact of their online advertising. Ross Butterfill has joined as Brand Partnerships Lead, while Claire Dillon has been appointed as Head of People. Good-Loop is also growing its marketing team, with former Unruly VP David Waterhouse joining as Global Communications Director and Charna Walfall joining as Senior Marketing Manager.
The Independent Publishers Alliance are happy to announce Steven Filler as a specialist advisor. Filler currently runs the UK business for video specialists ShowHeroes, and after a long and distinguished career in media spanning national press, consumer press and ad tech has joined us in the next stage of The Alliance, where we begin to support the members commercially.
Digital audio company Octave Audio has announced the appointment of Matthew Rouse as Podcast Lead. Rouse will spearhead the development of Octave Podcasts, an offering designed to give brands simple, targeted access to aggregated podcast audiences at scale, powered by first-party data. Octave Audio is a joint venture from commercial radio operators, News UK’s Wireless and Bauer Media. Rouse joins Octave Audio from Acast, bringing more than 16 years of audio experience to the company. He has worked both agency and media owner side, spending 10 years at Mindshare, as well as producing his own podcast show.
Specsavers has announced the appointment of Danny Bush as integrated production team lead, The Agency. Prior to Specsavers Bush held senior creative operations roles across the UK’s most recognised agencies including The & Partnership, Mother, Engine and VCCP. Bush will lead a team of 10 and will be responsible for the seamless production of quality creative work through The Agency.
Collinson has announced the board appointment of Mo Shakarchi as the newly created position of Chief Product and Innovation Officer. Shakarchi comes to Collinson with a wealth of product leadership, commercial and customer acumen after more than 17 years of working for leading organisations across the energy, technology and communications sectors. He has delivered differentiated customer experiences and realised multi-billion pound commercial value. He joins the company from Vodafone, where he was heading up the UK Product Growth and Commercial Strategy teams, and prior to that has held multiple leadership roles at BP, most recently the Global Chief Product Officer. Alongside his work at Collinson, Shakarchi will continue to be an advisory board member for Global Logic and start-ups, where he advises C-level suit on product, digital and data trends across industries.
WeTransfer, a global provider of creative productivity tools, has announced the hire of two senior individuals to turbocharge the growth of its advertising arm: Diane Wrightson has been appointed Vice President of Strategy and Operations, having joined from The Guardian, where she was Head of Campaign Delivery, responsible for the delivery of digital advertising and attracting audiences to commercial digital content. At WeTransfer, she will drive the strategic direction of the advertising team as it invests in new formats and partnerships. Adam Smith takes on the role of Vice President of Global Sales, bringing over a decade of experience from Vevo, Conde Nast and most recently Warner Music Group’s Uproxx Media. He will be responsible for leading global advertising revenue across all key industry verticals and agency teams in the Netherlands, UK and the US.
Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, announces the appointment of former Meta strategic partner manager Sebastian Totté as its new Senior Country Manager for the UK, France and Benelux. Totté joins Xsolla following more than seven years at Meta on both the mobile and publisher sides of the business. He has substantial experience in Meta’s Mobile App, Mobile Web, In-stream Video, Instant Article, and Instant Games divisions. Prior to Meta, Totté worked at AdTech company InMobi, where he was Premium Partner Manager (EMEA), helping develop partnerships with premium SSPs and publishers, specifically sports, news, and entertainment apps.
Westcon-Comstor, the global technology provider and specialist distributor, announced the appointment of John Nolan as Managing Director, UK & Ireland. Nolan takes over from Antony Byford, who will now act as Vice President in the newly formed Cloud & Collaboration business division. Formerly Sales Director, Westcon UK&I, Nolan’s new role sees him taking over operations for Westcon UK & Ireland, leading a team of over a hundred sales, technical and operational professionals.
Walr, the res-tech company behind the cutting-edge data creation platform, has welcomed Richard Thornton to its board. Thornton joins Keziah Wonstolen as Non-Executive Director at Walr. Thornton joins with over 20 years’ experience in consulting and commercial roles, within the data and insights industry; most recently as an operating partner for J12. Prior to this, Thornton was part of the management team at Cint Group and led the business to a successful Initial Public Offering in February 2021.
Software AG has announced Joshua Husk has been appointed CRO of Software AG and will become a member of the Group’s Management Board. The Company also announces the appointment of Dr. Benno Quade as group COO and Management Board member. The appointments will expand Software AG’s Management Board to six members and will be effective from August 1, 2022. Joshua Husk is a proven sales leader who has built and scaled sales teams in highly competitive markets. He has had a distinguished career, holding senior roles at major software players including First Data Corporation, IBM, Intel, Oracle and most recently at the cloud company Samba Nova. He has experience covering all Go-To-Market functions including direct sales, alliances and channel, product management and inside sales. An outstanding internal candidate, Dr. Benno Quade has been with Software AG for 10 years and knows its business and transformation strategy inside out. He has held the positions of Chief Legal Officer, Chief Operating Officer for the Go-to-Market organization, and has most recently held the post of Chief Customer Success Officer.
Jargon PR has launched an international office in Dubai to service the rapidly growing technology market in the UAE. The agency will focus on business-to-business campaigns and will grow through new client wins and the expansion of existing client campaigns into the region. Supporting the agency’s growth on the ground with media strategy is Cheryl King of King & Co, who has been in the region for almost eight years. King will be harnessing her knowledge of the MENA market to provide consultancy and strategic insight as she helps to support the business to continue its growth trajectory.
Qmee, the research technology company and a part of Kantar’s Profiles Division, has announced the appointment of Guv Jagdev as Head of Partnerships. Jagdev is tasked with further developing Qmee’s offers and deals solution, ensuring brands have a great way to engage with the Qmee audience, building loyalty and favorability. Jagdev joins Cadi Jones, Qmee’s Chief Commercial Officer who joined Qmee earlier this year from Beeswax, part of Freewheel.
Brightcove Inc. has appointed Trisha Stiles as Chief People Officer (CPO). Stiles will assume responsibilities on Aug. 29, leading human resource strategy, including talent and performance management, spearheading diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, developing competitive people practices, and reinforcing the company’s strategic direction and business growth. Stiles brings over 20 years of experience leading human resources for Fortune 500 companies, including Tableau, a Salesforce Business Unit, CBS Interactive, and NBC Universal.
Analytic Partners has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of Fleur Sohtz as Chief Marketing Officer. Sohtz joins Analytics Partners with 20 years of experience leading integrated marketing efforts at global companies including Collibra, Markit (now part of S&P) and Thomson Reuters. Sohtz will oversee the company’s marketing and communications and support its rapid growth following the company’s recent round of funding with Onex Partners. She brings a long track record of building marketing organisations, scaling high-growth companies through double-digit revenue growth and IPO, and bringing new products to the market. Prior to joining Analytic Partners, Sohtz held senior marketing and revenue roles at Team8, an Israeli-based global venture group, as well as its portfolio companies.
Incode, the next-generation identity verification and authentication platform for global enterprises, has announced two new strategic hires, Andrew Stewart as Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Shane Moore as Vice President, North America. As an industry veteran, Moore brings more than 20 years of experience driving major account and channel growth to the Incode team. He most recently built the North America operations as the Vice President of Sales for cybersecurity company Bitglass, which was acquired by Forcepoint. Stewart most recently worked in various senior roles at cloud security leader NetSkope, including Vice President, EMEA, where he built the company’s EMEA operations. Prior to his tenure at NetSkope, Stewart was the Vice President, EMEA, at OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco), A10 Networks and Fortinet.
Global experience agency WRG, a division of The Creative Engagement Group, has appointed expert creative experiential strategist Katie Streten to boost their response to the growing demand for live experiences across the globe. As Head of Creative Strategy, Streten will work with cross-functional teams to lead the strategic insights, thinking, process, systems and tools that enable WRG to deliver standout creative work that is effective in inspiring lasting change and meeting its clients’ objectives. Streten joins WRG from VMLY&R Commerce, MENA where she was Head of Experiential Strategy and before that Head of Strategy and Insight at Imagination, Detroit. With specific expertise across B2B and B2C creative strategies and the development of purposeful, insight-driven briefs, Streten has driven experiential strategies for the likes of Twitter, Porsche, Lexus, Ford, Coca-Cola and Netflix.
