Octagon, the global creative agency specialising in sport and entertainment, has announced the addition of Sarah Glover and Lucy Collier as Creative Directors, further expanding the agency’s creative offering globally. Glover and Collier, better known as “Sarah & Loose”, join Octagon, which serves as agency of record for more than 50 Fortune 500 brands worldwide. The creative agency veterans will be based in Octagon’s London office and will help guide creative development for a number of the agency’s global client accounts, including Mastercard. Prior to Octagon, Glover and Collier were Creative Directors at Leagas Delaney in London, leading work for Patek Philippe, The Dalmore and Royal British Legion. Glover has held creative leadership positions at a number of global agencies, including VMLY&R, Publicis, and BBDO working on Starbucks, Bailey’s and Mars. Collier has held creative leadership positions at Engine and Wieden + Kennedy, working on Nike, Honda and Nokia.
Illuma Technology, the contextual AI specialist, has appointed a Global Partnerships Director to meet growing demand for its first-party data solutions. Retail media expert Nigel Ponder spearheads Illuma’s growth in audience modelling; supporting first-party data owners as they move away from identity-based options. Ponder experience spans agencies, brands and technology, and he previously launched Triad Retail Media in Europe. Triad was one of the first companies to build successful advertising solutions for global retailers, including Walmart, eBay, Asda, Sams Club, MediaMarkt and Saturn. Triad used retailer shopper data and worked with supplier brands to execute targeted campaigns along the path to purchase. Ponder has also worked with publishers including NBC Universal, Comcast, Sky News, National Geographic, Fox, Fortune, and The Economist Group. He understands the commercial opportunities facing first-party data owners in the privacy-first world.
Digital transformation agency, Equator, has strengthened its senior management team by appointing a Talent Acquisition Partner, who will be instrumental in helping the Glasgow headquartered company find and recruit the best tech and digital talent to service and support its burgeoning portfolio and ambitious growth plans. Alena Kovina joins from her role as Graduate and Talent Manager at the Royal Mail, a position she held for almost three years. A graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University with a bachelor’s degree in International Business and HR management, Kovina will work within the People and Culture team at Equator, where she will be responsible for looking after recruitment for the business including permanent and contract roles, manage the full internal recruitment lifecycle and the effective onboarding of new recruits, whilst building and shaping the internal recruitment function and developing a recruitment strategy specifically suited to Equator, coupled with identifying external market trends.
Vibrant Media, the technology company that addresses the full range of agencies’ and marketers’ contextual data and privacy-safe advertising needs, has announced the appointment of two strategic hires who will support the company’s sales and operations. Brandon Rea has returned to the company as vice president of sales and Austin Inglett has joined as ad operations manager to support another year of exponential growth in 2022. Understanding the current opportunity for contextual targeting, this appointment marks Rea’s return to Vibrant Media. He has worked in business development and sales for over two decades, holding leadership positions at companies including Sabio Mobile, AdColony, Videology and more. Based in Detroit, Rea will support Vibrant Media’s customers to seamlessly incorporate precise and scalable contextual targeting into their programmatic marketing strategies. For over four years, Inglett has worked in the advertising industry across several verticals including entertainment, retail, politics and healthcare. Inglett’s experience ranges from media buyer to client strategy and service coordinator. He has held relevant positions at advertising and marketing companies including The Mighty, January Digital, Koeppel Direct and Davis Lenz Media. Inglett will help manage ad inventory and operations to support further growth initiatives.
Chris Vincelli joins in-game advertising company Anzu.io as the new VP Business Development. Vincelli will be working alongside Anzu’s newly-appointed EVP Business Development and in-game advertising veteran Guy Ben-dov. Vincelli has been establishing premium publisher partnerships within global companies for the past 11 years. Starting his career with Millennial Media, Vincelli secured new alliances with the top US gaming publishers while managing some of the company’s most strategic publisher relationships. In 2015, Vincelli moved to Vungle to manage and onboard top US gaming publishers and learn performance marketing from some of the top minds in the industry. Before his move to Anzu, Vincelli most recently started at Yahoo as Director of Global Partnerships, securing strategic partnerships with top global publishers focused around monetization, UA, and identity.
Scibids is pleased to announce the appointment of Nadia Gonzalez to the newly-created position of chief marketing officer. Gonzalez brings more than 15 years of marketing experience to the position, including senior marketing roles at AdMeld (acquired by Google in 2011), Google, Berlin-based Sociomantic (acquired by Dunnhumby/Tesco in 2014), fintech firm Orchard Platform (acquired by Kabbage/American Express in 2018) and her own marketing services firm founded in 2018, where Gonzalez used her considerable marketing experience on behalf of early-stage adtech and fintech businesses globally. At every point in her career, she has provided strong leadership, measurable success, innovation, and impact in fast-changing industries.
Adludio, the global advertising platform providing top-tier creative and superior insight into consumer-behaviour data, has hired Charlie Roth as Regional Director of Sales for the US Northeast. Coming at a significant time of expansion for Adludio, Roth will spearhead the company’s plans for growth in North America as it maximises its recent gains. An established name in the SaaS industry, Roth’s expertise and network connections will be directed at building Adludio’s local business. He will use existing brand direct and agency relationships to cultivate new partnerships, identifying qualified prospects and moving them swiftly through the sales cycle, as well as onboarding and helping to expand the regional sales team. Having held a series of successful leadership & sales roles, Roth carries with him a wealth of experience across DSP’s, programmatic direct, MAIDs, attribution, IP targeting, survey and compliant data. Prior to joining Adludio Roth was part of the 2021 Qualtrics SaaS platform relaunch at Engine Group, and part of the transition team with Freckle IoT when they were acquired by PlacedIQ in 2020.
Incubeta, the global digital marketing group, has announced the appointment of Kevin Buerger as the new CEO of Incubeta US. Formerly the Global Chief Growth Officer of Jellyfish, Buerger will drive Incubeta’s growth strategy and elevate its client service offerings for current and future partners. Based in New York, Buerger will report directly to Lars Lehne, Group CEO of Incubeta. A career spanning over thirty years, Buerger was most recently the Global Chief Growth Officer for Jellyfish. During his tenure, he founded Jellyfish US, as well as launched strategic partnerships with Google, among others, which led the company to become one of the top two Google partners globally. Prior to Jellyfish, Buerger held corporate strategy and development positions at The Washington Post and Reed Elsevier.
Advertising agency, Team Eleven, has hired Sarah Nwume (formerly McGill) as Creative Director. Nwume will lead and drive the creative output for the agency as it looks to build on recent client wins including Lily O’Brien’s, Elizabeth Shaw, and Allurion – adding to their roster of brands including Invisalign and Alfa Romeo. Previous stints at McCann Health, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Work Communications for clients including Johnson & Johnson, Cadbury’s, and Nestlé combined with her MBA in Creative Leadership, Pharma Marketing Awards judging and mentorship via SheSays and WeAreFolio give Nwume an impressive background and experience to bring to the agency.
Harmen Tjaarda, the co-founder of JustPremium, a GumGum company, is set to become Managing Director of GumGum Belgium, Netherlands, Nordics and Spain. In his new role, Tjaarda will oversee these four critical markets as GumGum continues its European expansion. Tjaarda began his career in finance before becoming Head of Trading and Optimization at AdRepublic. He co-founded JustPremium, the world’s first programmatic rich media ad exchange, in the Netherlands in 2012 and has also spent many years working in the US. In the wake of the acquisition, he became SVP, Strategic Development & Customer Success EMEA at GumGum.
Digital agency iCrossing UK has promoted Maria Bain to the newly created role of Head of Audience Intelligence. Since joining iCrossing in 2018 as Social Media Strategist, Bain has swiftly risen through the ranks being promoted to Strategy & Planning Director in January 2019, and Senior Strategy & Insight Director in April 2021, working on brands including Pfizer, Amazon and the Welsh Government, and designing industry award-winning campaigns. In conjunction with Bain’s promotion, she will join the senior management team working in partnership with all department heads to supercharge their audience activation and build a centralised audience-first approach for all clients.
Hubilo Technologies Inc, the world-class leader in virtual, live, and hybrid event management technology, recently announced the appointment of Sophie Ahmed as Senior Vice President of Market Strategy. Ahmed is an accomplished events professional and brings over two decades of experience in the media and events industry to the role, having led global events for leading brands such as Informa, Reed Exhibitions, Cannes Lions, and Money 20/20. Prior to joining Hubilo, Ahmed was the CEO and Co-Founder of the Virtual Events Institute (VEI), a global platform to bring the virtual and hybrid events community together to share best practices and spur innovation. While at VEI, she upskilled over 2,500 professionals, connected and educated event professionals, planners, and event tech companies in the area of virtual, live, and hybrid events.
Gigamon has announced the appointment of Shane Buckley as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Monday, April 18, 2022. After 10 years, Paul Hooper is stepping down from the CEO role but will remain an active member of the Gigamon Board of Directors. Buckley has served as the President and COO at Gigamon for four years where he has expanded the company’s business and markets worldwide. Buckley’s experience in creating new market categories, such as the creation of the wide-area network (WAN) optimisation category, is invaluable as Gigamon expands its deep observability offerings.
Maintel, the cloud and managed services company, has announced the appointment of Gabriel Pirona to the Maintel Board as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Pirona will start his new role from 3rd May and will play a central role in leading Maintel’s continuous transformation and growth. Pirona trained at PwC and has over 25 years of financial experience in both industry and public practice. Most recently he worked at Agilisys, where he was Group CFO. Through his extensive career Pirona has gained extensive and relevant strategic financial and business transformation experience. He has significant knowledge of company strategy, public markets and M&A, having previously led multiple successful acquisitions. Prior to Agilisys Pirona served as Group CFO at Selecta, one of Europe’s leading innovative food and drink solutions provider and has also served in the same role at Photo-Me International plc, and as Regional CFO at Recall.
Exiger, a global SaaS risk and compliance company, has announced that Brandon Daniels has been named CEO of the company, effective May 21, 2022. Daniels joined Exiger in early 2017. He has played a pivotal role in the development and growth of Exiger’s products and platform, including DDIQ and its application to third-party and supply chain risk management for the U.S. Federal Government, the Defense Industrial Base and global corporations. Prior to Exiger, Daniels served as President of Clutch Group. At Clutch, Daniels implemented technology-enabled solutions that transformed the business and accelerated growth, supporting clients in conducting some of the largest regulatory investigations and change management programs in financial services and healthcare. Daniels also worked as Vice President of Legal Solutions at the world’s largest IP and legal analytics company, CPA Global, driving early adoption of legal technologies in the corporate market. Daniels spent his early career in legal technology at companies including Lexis Nexis and CRG.
