Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

NDA’s Talent Tracker column provides a regular update on which companies are recruiting who and from where.

Talent Tracker: HAVAS Red, Cognito, Emplifi and more

Global communications agency, HAVAS Red, has named Sophie Raine as its new Managing Director in London. Raine joins from Ketchum UK where she worked for four years and was responsible for leading the second largest consumer practice in the UK, Ketchum Brand, prior to this she was Deputy Managing Director at W Communications. As Managing Director, Raine will take on the leadership of the London office, focusing on its continued growth, new business and client experience. Reporting to Rachael Sansom, CEO Europe and UK, she will continue to work with major blue-chip clients including American Express and Jaguar Land Rover. Raine brings with her a wealth of experience across retail, consumer tech, FMCG and not-for-profit sectors. Her career highlights include multiple award wins, spending the last three years on the Women in PR committee as well as being named as one of Campaign Magazine’s 40 over 40. 

Cognito, the independent global communications agency, driving the conversations that matter in financial markets, technology, and the climate transition announces the appointment of Harry Sheward as Director of Brand Marketing. Sheward joins the London office, where he will use his experience delivering product, brand and purpose-led communications to help drive global growth for Cognito and its clients. Sheward strengthens the agency’s ability to create integrated marketing campaigns, and creative and brand services to clients. He has over two decades of brand and marketing experience at big creative firms such as VCCP and TBWA and smaller boutique integrated agencies like Fold7. Sheward has led integrated campaigns for Cathay Pacific, Go Compare and Carlsberg.

Emplifi, a customer engagement platform provider, has announced the appointment of Susan Ganeshan as its Chief Marketing Officer. Ganeshan will lead Emplifi’s marketing and growth initiatives while working cross-functionally within the organisation to help global brands deliver a seamless experience throughout the customer journey. She will be actively involved with Emplifi’s clients to support their CX efforts ensuring they drive brand growth through mature social media marketing, social commerce, and customer care capabilities. Ganeshan is a veteran marketing leader with more than two decades of experience leading high-tech marketing and CX strategies. Before joining Emplifi, Ganeshan served as CMO for Clearwater Analytics, a provider of investment accounting SaaS solutions for institutional investors. Prior to her tenure at Clearwater Analytics, she was the CMO for Granicus (Vista Equity Partners & Harvest Partners), and she has held multiple leadership roles at top SaaS solution providers, including Clarabridge (acquired by Qualtrics), newBrandAnalytics (acquired by Sprinklr), webMethods (now IBM), CheckFree (now Fiserv), and Deloitte Consulting. 

Resolution Design, a creative marketing agency based in Devizes, is delighted to welcome two new team members. Rebecca Jenkins joins as an Account Executive, bringing valuable experience from previous client-facing roles. Mariah Roberts joins the team as a Junior Web Developer, further enhancing the agency’s technical capabilities and increasing its capacity to build WordPress and other websites. These new hires bring the company’s total headcount to nine, reflecting the increasing workload and demand for its services.

Seed, the youth creative arm of the Amplify collective that partners with clients including Bumble, Jack Daniel’s and Spotify – is expanding its offer to encompass creator collaborations, content and production; while supporting growth by hiring four new team members, including Jessica Attwell, who hails from creative content studio, OK COOL. Attwell, who joins as Account Director, will support the agency’s new business function while delivering on the needs of existing clients by focusing on everything from account planning to resource management and forecasting. Reporting into Seed’s Managing Director,Jen Anderson, Attwell will also lead on one of the agency’s flagship clients, INSTAX, ensuring the resulting work connects authentically with youth audiences. Coming from a four-year tenure at OK COOL, Attwell has an abundance of experience in overseeing dynamic social and digital campaigns across various sectors including fashion, beverages and FMCG. In a tenure that spanned collaborations with Urban Outfitters, COS, PUMA and Heineken, Attwell’s primary role was based around delivering innovative social campaigns for the Gen Z market. In addition to Attwell’s arrival, Seed has also recently welcomed Emilie Jenner as a fellow Account Director who joined from Amplify; Maryam Samad as a Senior Account Manager joining from The Marble Group; and Joanna Allcock as Brand and Growth Lead, formerly Senior Commercial Strategy & Partnerships Manager at Hi Mum! Said Dad. The new additions further strengthen Seed’s leadership so as to support an extended offering that now includes creator collaborations, content and production.

impact.com, the world’s standard, partnership management platform, has named Nikolai Lundstrøm Brink as Country Manager, Denmark. He will operate out of impact.com’s office in Aarhus. In his new role, Nikolai will be charged with growing impact.com to become the market leader in the partnership marketing space in Denmark. Lundstrøm Brink has been working in the sector for ten years, initially as an affiliate, and more recently as Head of Sales for affiliate network Adtraction Denmark.

Strategic full-service digital agency, Hallam, continues to develop its Client Services department, welcoming a new hire and internal promotion to its Project Management team. The expansion sees the promotion of Lee Fletcher to Senior Project Manager and welcomes new hire, Ellie Swain, in the position of Junior Project Manager. These changes to the team come at an exciting time for the agency, having just been shortlisted in six categories for the European Search Awards 2024, including ‘Best Large PPC Agency’, ‘Best Large SEO Agency’, and ‘Best Integrated Search Agency’. As reigning champions of the latter title, Hallam will be hoping to make it a hattrick and hold onto the title for the third consecutive year.