Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Talent Tracker: iCrossing, Jaywing, Havas Entertainment and more

Pauline Aufrere has been promoted to Head of Account Management at UK digital marketing agency iCrossing. Since joining iCrossing in 2015, as an Account Manager, Aufrere has worked across multiple categories including retail, beauty, finance and fin tech. She has also managed some of the agencies most complex client relationships and has been pivotal in driving performance across the agency. Aufrere’s promotion follows on from the recent appointment of Jamie Clifford to Managing Director of iCrossing UK earlier this year. Prior to his promotion, Clifford was Chief Client Officer and led the account management team at iCrossing.

Jaywing, has bolstered its retail team with five new hires. Taking up roles are Nick Robinson, Paddy CavanaghChris DowseJade Cole and Scarlett Whittell. Nick Robinson takes on the role of Account Director. With 16 years of marketing experience across both client-side and agency businesses in retail, sport, FMCG and e-commerce, Robinson brings a wealth of experience to the team. Formerly Senior Account Director at Savvy Marketing, he managed clients including Adidas and Reebok and has also worked freelance for agencies including The Marketing Store and Ear to the Ground. Paddy Cavanagh joined the graduate scheme at M&C Saatchi in 2018, rising from Account Executive to Senior Account Manager in just three years. During that time, he worked across a broad spectrum of clients, most notably on NatWest’s award-winning ‘Freddie vs Freddie’ campaign.

Chris Dowse has worked in the industry for 10 years in a mix of agency and client-side strategy and planning roles including Center Parcs and most recently Annica Digital. As Senior Strategist, Dowse will inform media buying strategy and test and learn programs for clients, as well as creative strategy and proposition development. Jade Cole joins Jaywing as Account Manager with five years of agency experience gained at Generate UK, Northern Media and Front, where she had hands-on roles in digital marketing, creative and branding projects. Cole’s Role at Jaywing will see her leading on campaigns for an array of retail clients including La Redoute. With five years’ experience in digital marketing, Scarlett Whittell’s breadth of expertise ranges from client management to creating digitally optimised content for global brands. Formerly an Account Manager at Stickyeyes, she worked on the Formula One sponsorship campaign for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2020 with Etihad Airways and now joins Jaywing as Account Manager.

Havas Entertainment, Havas Media Group’s recently launched entertainment proposition, is announcing two new hires for JUMP, its culture and content agency. Micaela Maciel joins as Creative Strategy Director, while Drew Wolf joins as Creative Director, with both sitting within JUMP. Maciel was most recently Strategy Director at global brand consultancy Revolt, where she worked on communications for H&M US and built the content strategy for The Opponent, a new community platform for women in sport. She was previously Senior Creative Strategist at Amplify, Campaign’s Brand Experience Agency of the Decade, developing strategies for brands including Adidas, Jack Daniel’s and Smirnoff. With experience in developing and overseeing content studios creating high-quality content at scale, Wolf joins Havas Entertainment after nearly a year-and-a-half running his own creative consultancy, working with brands, agencies and publishers on everything from traditional creative ideation, content strategy and production through to branding and consumer product development. Most recently he has completed the rebrand and creative positioning for Little Dot Studios and worked with Amazon, YouTube, VanMoof, Tommy Hilfiger, Dr. Martens and Uniqlo.

Noname Security has announced the appointment of Dirk Marichal as vice president EMEA. Marichal will be responsible for further expanding Noname’s presence across EMEA, through building robust relationships with additional channel partners, system integrators and customers. Marichal is an accomplished business and sales leader, with more than 20 years of experience across a variety of software and hardware technology sectors including networking, security, data centre, and hyperconverged infrastructure. He previously served as vice president of sales at Cohesity for the EMEA region, where he had complete oversight for the company’s business development and sales operations throughout the region. Prior to his role at Cohesity, he held similar roles at Avi Networks, Nutanix and Infoblox

Inskin Media, which specialises in multi-screen, high impact digital brand advertising, has made another key promotion as it continues its global expansion, with Svenja Damzog promoted to Director, Publisher Services, EMEA and NA. Damzog joined Inskin Media back in 2015 as Publisher Services Executive, quickly rising through the ranks to Head of International Publishers. Prior to joining Inskin Media, she was working in sales and account management at Ryanair, across a number of markets. She will report to Anna Forbes, the ad tech company’s recently appointed Chief Operating Officer.

Global Advertising and Marketing group Ogilvy UK has promoted Rahul Titus to Head of Influence across UK & EMEA. As well as his existing responsibilities as Head of Influence in the UK,  Titus will now be leading Ogilvy’s influence offering across EMEA – one of the fastest growing offerings in the region. In his new role, Titus will be in charge of setting the strategic direction of the Ogilvy influence proposition across the UK and EMEA. He will help unlock the best of Ogilvy’s talent through creative-first, data-driven influencer campaigns covering the full spectrum from celebrities all the way to micro-influencers. Before joining Ogilvy, Titus set up and ran MediaCom’s global influencer offering and has also served as Director of Social Talent at the YMU Group (formerly James Grant) looking after some of the world’s leading social-first talent.

Uberall has announced the appointment of two experienced, top level leaders to leverage Uberall’s global strategy. Veronika Gorkina will be driving Go to Market operations strategy as the new Vice President GTM Strategy & Operations, and Laurence Capdeville will focus on taking Uberall’s already strong customer success programme to the next level as Vice President of Customer Success. Gorkina has more than 10 years of operational management experience. She was previously at Media Math, an ad-tech firm, and Forter, an e-commerce fraud prevention company, which achieved unicorn status last fall with a valuation of $3 billion. As one of Forter’s first employees, Gorkina helped double revenue in less than a year, building the global operation team from scratch, and helping to scale the company. Newly appointed VP of Customer Success, Laurence Capdeville, has 15-years’ experience with seven of them in the finance industry, having worked at Citigroup Inc., an American multinational investment bank. A highly experienced, London-based tech leader, Capdeville transitioned to the tech space in 2012, and has worked with client-facing teams at ad tech company, AppNexus (now Xander, valued at $1.6bn) as Director, Product Solutions & Professional Services, and most recently as the Global Head of Customer Success at Via.

INSTANDA has appointed Simon Candy as Senior Manager in Propositions and Business Development to support INSTANDA’s expansion into the life and health market. The announcement follows on from the recent appointment of former Aviva Executive Will Wood earlier this year to Head of Life and Health as INSTANDA continues to attract top talent from the insurance industry. Candy is a highly experienced financial services professional, with 24 years’ experience and a proven track record of managing and developing Life and Health insurance products. In addition to his 17 years at Aviva primarily as a Senior Propositions Manager, Candy worked for seven years at HSBC as a Marketing and Communication Manager. He has also been a member of the Group Risk Industry Forum [GRiD] Regs Committee for over 15 years.

Channel Factory has appointed a new Managing Director for France. Fiona Alenda replaces Jean Haller to lead the company’s in market business strategy to drive the business forward in the region and to help the company continue to expand its EMEA footprint. Alenda brings more than 10 years of experience in mobile and digital advertising, having previously spent much of her career at S4M after helping to launch the tech platform as its first employee. At S4M, Alenda created and led the company’s global customer success department as the SVP of Customer Success where she managed a team of more than 40 account managers, traders and designers focussed on client retention and relationship management. 

NextPlay Technologies, Inc, a technology solutions company building a digital business ecosystem for digital advertisers, consumers, video gamers and travelers, has reported the appointment of Nithinan (Jessie) Boonyawattanapisut as the company’s Co-chief Executive Officer. Ms. Boonyawattanapisut founded and has served as the Chief Executive Officer of HotPlay Enterprise Limited and its subsidiaries prior to the completion of the Monaker and HotPlay merger on June 30, 2021. She is an experienced entrepreneur in the video game, digital media, and e-commerce industries. Formerly, she served as the Managing Director of Axion Interactive Inc., an online video gaming and technology company, since 2017 and led its content investment arm. She also co-founded and served as the CEO and Chairperson of the Board at True Axion Interactive, a JV game studio formed with True Corporation, a major Thai telecommunication company.