Integrated agency Marketing Signals has welcomed an expansion by introducing a brand new Digital PR department. Heading up the new department will be Digital PR Campaign Manager Olivia Bence, who previously worked at Smoking Gun PR. This comes after a successful period for Marketing Signals, which recently added two brand new B2C e-commerce clients to its roster. Bence, who will be heading up the new Digital PR department, has over four years of experience in Digital PR, having previously worked at other leading Manchester agencies on a number of award-winning campaigns. The Manchester-based agency has also made two new hires, Lauren Eaton has been recruited as a Paid Media Executive with Vanessa Adamko, Adamko joining as an SEO Content Writer. As the agency continues to expand, it has also made an internal promotion with Imogen Green, being promoted to Content Strategist, further demonstrating the company’s successful start to 2021.
Inskin Media has made another key appointment with Anna Forbes appointed as Chief Operating Officer. Previously UK General Manager at The Trade Desk, Senior Director at Xandr and COO and Co-founder of Brainient, subsequently sold to Teads, Forbes has close to two decades’ experience at the bleeding edge of advertising technology, leading teams across Europe and the US. She has a track record of building start-ups and scale-ups in order to achieve their maximum potential ahead of acquisition or IPO. Holly Morrison has also been promoted to Insight Manager, in recognition of her work supporting Inskin’s commercial teams globally during lockdown; managing its suite of campaign-based research offerings around visual engagement and brand lift studies. Prior to joining Inskin as Senior Insight Executive, Morrison was part of the insight team at Unruly and has specialist experience in research, analytics and engagement. The news also follows the recent appointments of Dominic Tillson as Marketing Director, and Fiona Maynard as Commercial Manager.
Ripple has announced the appointment of Sendi Young as Managing Director of its European operations. With over fifteen years of experience in fintech, payments and consulting, Young joins Ripple following a five-year tenure at Mastercard, where she held leadership roles driving strategy, commercialisation, bank-fintech partnerships, and business development. Most recently, Young led the Fintech & Digital Segment globally for Mastercard’s Data & Services business and grew services that helped banks adopt real-time payments, Open Banking and Artificial Intelligence.
Havas Media Group (HMG) announces the appointment of Ben Downing as Global Managing Director, Ethical Media and Strategic Partnerships. Based in London, he will report to Global Chief Strategy Officer Greg James. Downing has been with the global media network for nearly eight years and most recently led the rollout of the Social Equity Marketplace and pioneered the re-monetization of “hard” news as Global Head of Biddable. His background in product management and technology, combined with his recent experience in delivering complex multi-market execution for clients, will help the rubber meet the road in his new role. To further support the development of Meaningful Media, he will return to the University of Cambridge to undertake post-graduate study in sustainable business.
Kantar has announced the appointment of Chris Jansen as Group Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 November 2021. Jansen joins Kantar with more than 20 years of leadership experience in the services sector; from brand building to service delivery transformation, alongside a background in classic FMCG marketing, and an established track record of managing private equity-owned businesses. Jansen is currently the CEO of Cognita which has, over his six-year tenure, rapidly grown into one of the largest, and most highly regarded global schools groups. Prior to that, Jansen led the Automobile Association (AA) to a stock market flotation in 2014. Jansen held leadership roles, and Board positions at both British Gas and British Airways, having started his early career at Procter & Gamble.
Wavemaker veteran Allison Coley is moving to the role of Managing Director, Global Media for the Colgate-Palmolive account and becomes part of Red Fuse, the integrated global WPP team dedicated to serving the client worldwide. Currently Chief Client Officer APAC at Wavemaker, Coley will relocate to New York and take up the position from 1st July 2021. A longstanding member of Wavemaker’s leadership team, Coley has held senior international management roles in New York, London, Paris as well as in APAC as North Asia CEO and, latest, as APAC Chief Client Officer. She is an experienced client leader and has among others worked with brands like Huawei, AXA, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and VISA. She previously worked on the Colgate-Palmolive account between 2008 and 2016.
Five9, Inc. has announced the appointment of Chief Information Security Officer Hardik Parekh, an industry recognised executive with a track record of developing and maturing world-class security programs in enterprise companies including Intuit, Amazon, and Splunk. Parekh joins Five9 from Rollbar, where, as Head of Information Security, he built information security, continuous compliance, and IT teams, and defined and implemented the business technology strategy and roadmap. In his previous role, as Head of Product Security at Splunk, he developed the product and infrastructure security and privacy strategy, which included on-premise, managed cloud, cloud-native platform/products, mobile products, premium applications and the application store.
Bristol-based, software solutions company Helastel has appointed seasoned business to business technology product management expert and entrepreneur, Gareth Williams, to its Board as MD for Product. Gareth, having facilitated the creation of a new business unit for the Intelastel Product business since the turn of the year, now joins the team permanently as full-time commercial and product lead for the Intelastel business, and an executive member of the Board, supporting Iouri Prokhorov, CEO and co-founder. He joins a Board that was already significantly bolstered following the appointment of Bristol business guru Nick Sturge MBE as Chair in 2020.
AppZen has announced the addition of Yoona Wong, Vice President of People/Culture, to the AppZen executive team. At AppZen, Wong focuses on developing and executing a people strategy that enables the company to grow and scale. An HR executive with more than 20 years of experience, Wong comes to AppZen after previously leading the HR function for Rakuten Rewards, the largest business unit within Rakuten Americas. Prior, Wong built up the HR function at Ebates and helped double the company’s headcount to 300 employees in less than 2 years, prior to its acquisition by Rakuten for $1B.
Team Eleven, a full-service agency, has announced the appointment of Jo Vaughan as Strategy Director. Previously a Brand Director at Procter & Gamble, Jo Vaughan has more than 20 years’ experience in FMCG, working across P&G brands in Europe, North America and Asia. Vaughan also has extensive experience in media planning and was P&G’s Head of Media before joining Team Eleven. Vaughan’s key responsibilities will be to drive specific areas of the business including creative strategy and client service. She will be responsible for clients including Invisalign, Alliance Pharma (inc. brands; Kelo-Cote, Nizoral, Aloclair, MacuShield) as well as taking a significant role in new business.
