Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Talent Tracker: Reprise, Cowshed Social, Journey Further and many more

Reprise has announced that it has promoted Leed’s based Danny Blackburn to Chief Strategy Officer. Having worked at IPG Mediabrands agency, Stickyeyes, for 6 years and at Reprise for a further year as Content Managing Partner, Blackburn brings creative flair and a real passion for developing dynamic marketing solutions that are built around real human beings.

TedX speaker and marketing entrepreneur Ryan Hornby has joined Cowshed Social as Chief Growth Officer (CGO) to help drive the ambitious young business forward. Hornby founded ‘IAM’, a model and creative agency group with over 70 personnel and offices in Belfast and Dublin. Ryan Hornby joins George Cowin and Ryan O’Shea on the C-Suite at Cowshed Social. He’ll report directly to the co-founders.

Journey Further has appointed Duncan Smith, former US President & Chief Media Officer at iProspect, as its new US CEO. Smith will be responsible for the North American market and will lead the agency’s growth ambitions. Smith has over 22 years of experience within senior leadership roles in some of the most prestigious global media agencies in the world including; Carat, Vizeum, Mediacom and Starcom. He brings a wealth of both brand and performance experience partnering with clients as diverse as P&G, AB InBev, Polestar Cars, MasterCard and Hilton.

Pyramid Analytics (Pyramid), a pioneering decision intelligence platform provider, has announced that Tom Warren has been appointed Regional Managing Director, UK and Ireland (UKI). Warren brings with him twelve years of experience leading high-achieving teams, alongside his previous experience as a professional rugby player, to build upon Pyramid’s growth in the UKI. The company’s customers in the UKI include Ann Summers, Liberty London, and Premier Foods. Having started his career as a professional rugby player, Tom Warren is excited about the challenge ahead. His most recent role was as Area VP Northern Europe at the cloud-based logistics platform Bringg where he was responsible for building out the EMEA sales team.

Cavai, the conversational advertising cloud, has appointed Mats Persson as CEO. In a career spanning more than 25 years, Persson was a former partner at PWC Consulting in Stockholm and COO at programmatic specialist, Adform, where he spent more than five years. An experienced entrepreneur and board member, he was most recently Executive Partner, IBM Global Business Services.

Ad tech company, Adnami, has appointed Svenja Damzog as Publisher Director, DACH, as it readies itself for further growth and expansion across Europe. Damzog will lead and continue the company’s continued expansion in the DACH region; managing and growing existing publisher relationships and onboarding new strategic partners, whilst overseeing the delivery of service activation and publisher sales training. With over a decade of experience, including more than six years at Inskin Media, where she rose through the ranks to Director, Publisher Services EMEA, Damzog has also worked at Azerion and for leading brands such as Ryanair and Volkswagen.

Peach has hired Emily Young as UKI Sales Director. Young joins Peach with 15 years of experience in Digital Media Sales with opportunities spanning Press, Broadcast, Pureplay Digital, Influencer Marketing and most recently Shoppable Tech with a vast portfolio of experience that includes Channel 5, Yahoo, Takumi and Smartzer.

London-based creative agency, The Brooklyn Brothers, has appointed Orlando Warner as Executive Creative Director to manage its creative and design department. Warner will oversee the creative department and be responsible for setting a standard of excellence within the agency. He will also play an active role in the agency’s cultural initiatives such as Night School – an industry-leading diversity and inclusion programme about to enter its third year. The appointment is Warner’s first time as an Executive Creative Director, and he brings with him an esteemed career in the creative industry, having worked across a diverse selection of ground-breaking campaigns, such as the Royal Navy, Dixons.co.uk and pro bono work for an anti-bullying campaign for Princess Diana’s legacy charity, The Diana Award. Most recently, Warner worked on the Long Live the Prince campaign for The Kiyan Prince Foundation, which won four pencils at D&AD, as well as two gold One Show awards.

Global home technology innovator, SharkNinja, has announced the appointment of Tom Brown as the new President for UK and Europe. Brown, who joins SharkNinja from Danish electronics company Jabra, has over 20 years’ experience in the consumer goods industry, leading high performing global teams to drive strategic transformation and profitable growth.  Along with Jabra, Brown has also held executive positions with Dutch technology firm TomTom.

Tribal Worldwide, the Total Experience agency, has redesigned its creative department, hiring three new creatives to join the team. Dave Sullivan and Al Taylor as Creative Directors, and Sisley Henning as a Creative. These appointments are designed to deliver a fresh, focused process for its clients. Dave Sullivan joins as Creative Director, bringing a strong copywriting background and award-winning work recognised by Cannes Lions, DA&D amongst others. He has extensive experience in the integrated advertising space, previously working at agencies including Publicis, CDD and AMV. Sullivan will also be joined by Creative Director Al Taylor. Previously working at agencies including AKQA, Collective London and Spark44, Taylor brings extensive cross-channel experience within the automotive sector. Tribal Worldwide has also appointed a new creative, Sisley Henning, who will report to Sullivan and Taylor. Henning has a background in film making, with a vast range of skills and experience in short films, animation, photography, voiceovers, and writing.

WeTransfer, a global provider of creative productivity tools, has announced the appointment of Angelique Temple to the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Temple brings to WeTransfer over a decade of experience developing and delivering marketing strategies and campaigns for high-growth global tech and media brands. An Australian native, she has made her home in New York over the past seven years as a leader in the data-driven marketing space. Most recently, she spent four years at WeWork as its VP of Growth and Revenue Marketing. During her time at WeWork, Temple was responsible for leading the marketing for WeWork’s monthly subscription product, WeWork All Access and pay-as-you-go membership, WeWork On Demand.

Hawk Platform has appointed Georgia Yaksich as agency sales manager as it continues to expand its commercial team to meet the ongoing growth in demand for its cross-channel advertising and insights technology. Yaksich joins media and insights platform Hawk from oOh!media, an out-of-home (OOH) specialist in Australia; she takes on her new role from Jennifer Richards, who was promoted to group commercial leader at Hawk in April this year.

Creative agency ELVIS has made a raft of new hires and boosted its creative firepower. In a move to further strengthen its award-winning creative output, the agency has appointed Tom Gudgeon to the newly created role of Head of Design. Gudgeon joins ELVIS having previously worked at agencies including AnalogFolk, McCann Enterprise and The Playground. ELVIS has also hired Akanksha Oberoi to the position of Senior Creative. With significant experience of delivering high-quality brand-first ideas with an emotional impact, Oberoi was previously Creative Group Head at Grey and VCCP Singapore, before moving over to VCCP London. The agency’s other key new hires include George Walters and Bernard Burton, who join as a midweight creative team from MullenLowe London, where they spent just over six years. At ELVIS, Walters and Burton will work closely with the agency’s Creative Directors as they push to make career-defining work.

Adding to its growing motion team, ELVIS has also appointed Rhys Clarke and Pui Yi Peri Chiu as Motion Designers. Clarke joins having previously held roles at McCann Worldgroup and Joint London, while Chiu joins from RD Content, where her work included motion graphics, graphic design, illustration and video editing. Clarke and Chiu’s primary focus at ELVIS will be creating video content, encompassing 2D and 3D design, video production, VFX and motion graphics. In addition to the six creative hires, the agency has also appointed Robyn Lyness as Account Director. Lyness was most recently in a similar role at Field Day London, and has experience of working both client- and agency-side, having held positions at Tesco and Paperchase as well as agency Haygarth.

Mobile app experience company Airship has announced Virginia Llewellyn has been promoted to Chief Legal and Administrative Officer. In this role, Llewellyn will lead global legal and compliance matters, corporate governance and administration, and Airship’s newly expanded people organization. Llewellyn has served as Airship’s SVP and general counsel since October 2020, where her leadership and team’s knowledge have helped customers across the globe understand and proactively address important and often confusing data privacy regulations. Llewellyn brings more than 20 years of legal, compliance and HR leadership experience to Airship, and for the past 15 years has been responsible for both the legal and people functions in all of her general counsel roles. Prior to Airship, she served as general counsel for several $100m+ lifestyle, beauty and fashion brands, most recently for Goop. 

CoinFund, a web3 and blockchain-focused investment firm and registered investment advisor, is delighted to announce the appointment of Margaret Gabriel as Head of Talent. In this role, Gabriel will partner with CoinFund portfolio companies to help them strategically invest in and grow their teams, as well as support CoinFund’s global talent acquisition and leadership development strategy. Gabriel is a proven human resources leader who is passionate about fostering inclusive and growth-focused cultures. She joins CoinFund from cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, where she most recently held the position of Head of Learning & Development. Prior to that, she was part of the recruiting team at Google based out of their New York City offices. She holds a BA in Psychology and a Master’s in Mental Health Counselling. 

Oxford International Education Group (OIEG) has announced that Alexandra Korda has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Korda brings broad international marketing and product experience to help assist and accelerate OIEG’s ambitious digital growth plans. She has previously held UK and international roles at Orange, Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy UK, as well as global loyalty technology provider cxLoyalty/Tenerity. Korda joins as OIEG continues to build on its EdTech portfolio, including the expansion of its English Language Level Test offering. As an experienced marketing leader with a data-driven and consumer-centric focus, Korda will be a key driver behind OIEG’s ambitious digital growth plans, bringing fresh thinking from outside the Higher Education sector.

Fnality International has announced the appointment of Olga Zoutendijk as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors. She will be responsible for overseeing Fnality International’s development and the rollout of its international, regulated network of distributed Financial Market Infrastructures (dFMIs), the first of which is scheduled for later this year. Olga Zoutendijk is a renowned global banker, having held senior executive roles in wholesale, investment and retail banking in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States for over 25 years. In May 2016, she was appointed Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of ABN AMRO Group. Olga Zoutendijk was the first woman to lead a Supervisory Board of a stock exchange-listed company in the history of the Netherlands.

ECOMMPAY, an international payment service provider and direct bank card acquirer with its own fintech ecosystem for business growth, has appointed Francisco Mainez as its Head of Financial Crimes and Payments Digital Transformation. Joining ECOMMPAY’s UK and EMEA division with a remit to transform the company’s approach to financial crime by digitizing processes and introducing automation to reduce reliance on manual processes, Mainez previously spent more than seven years at HSBC in Financial Crime roles. Prior to joining HSBC, Mainez spent over three years at Standard Chartered Bank, between Singapore and London, as a Senior Manager for the Group Operational Risk Intelligence then later as Senior Manager for Regulatory Operational and Risk.

Ketch, the Trust-by-Design platform for Programmatic Privacy and Data Stewardship, today announced the official opening of its European HQ in London. Ketch announced a number of senior appointments as the company expands its operations in response to growing demand. Ketch has appointed Russell Howe as Vice President EMEA. Howe joins Ketch after 9 years with Salesforce, where he was a Senior AVP for Northern Europe.

As Jargon PR continues to enjoy unprecedented growth, former national newspaper journalist Amanda Evans has joined the team after being appointed as Executive Director of Media Strategy. A primary aspect of Evans’s role will be to lead Jargon PR’s well-established crisis management division. Evans will play a significant role in crisis management within Jargon PR. As a Fleet Street journalist with over 22 years of experience, she has worked on the UK’s biggest selling Sunday newspaper and was the one asking the difficult questions. Her knowledge, invaluable experience and deep understanding of the media brings a sense of perspective to the most challenging of situations. Amanda has interviewed a number of individuals, from celebrities and political leaders to academics and sporting stars. As former Head of PR for a Hampshire-based tech company, she also brings a wealth of new media and communications skills to the team.