Retail Marketing Group (RMG), the multichannel marketing agency, has announced the appointment of a new Commercial Director and Head of People, to strengthen its senior leadership team. Victoria Phillips and Justin Rigden have joined RMG as Commercial Director and Head of People respectively, at a time of rapid growth for the company, as it works alongside sister company Storey to provide end-to-end retail solutions. Previously Group Account Director of Brand and Retail Experience at Stellar Global, Phillips brings strong experience with securing new business and developing growth strategies. Phillips has worked with a wide range of high-profile brands that include Nike, Peloton, Beats by Dre, Genesis, and Samsung. With over two decades of experience in field marketing, Rigden was previously Group Operations Director at Acosta and has worked across commercial, operational, and people functions.
Havas Media Group has promoted Greg James to Global Chief Transformation Officer, effective immediately. James will be responsible for the newly formed Strategic Development and Client Experience team, a global hub focused on leading future-forward strategic growth initiatives for the agency and clients. His remit includes serving as executive sponsor on Havas Media Group’s largest global accounts, while also driving operational and strategic client experience excellence across the agency’s portfolio. James has been part of the Havas Group family for more than 15 years, most recently serving as Global Chief Strategy Officer where he was responsible for Havas Media Group’s strategic output globally. He is the mastermind behind the agency network’s Meaningful Media proposition and Mx system, the agency network’s globally consistent operating model.
Global design agency Coley Porter Bell, has announced John Malozzi’s appointment as Group Creative Director in its award-winning New York office. He will take creative lead across key accounts in the US and help further build the design team and creative culture in New York. Malozzi was previously a Creative Director of FutureBrand NY and Executive Creative Director of Pilot, where he helped global clients bring their brand and business strategy to life through powerful, purposeful storytelling. With over 25 years of industry experience, Malozzi has a wealth of knowledge in corporate and consumer branding, drawing deep inspiration from the world beyond the office and creating unexpected insights through surrounding himself with people of different interests, cultural perspectives and expertise.
Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) has announced the appointment of Mike Driver as Independent Chair of the SSCL Board. Within this role, Driver will support the Board and provide strategic oversight and governance. Bringing over 40 years of Civil Service and financial experience, Driver has held senior roles at the Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and Social Care, Department of Work and Pension and HM Treasury. He is also the President of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountancy (CIPFA) and a qualified accountant.
Prezzee Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tony Karp has announced he will be stepping down from his role with the global eGift card platform. Former MasterCard Executive Jamie Samaha has been appointed by the Board as global CEO, to commence in mid-March 2022. In his three years as CEO of Prezzee, Tony Karp has overseen the digital gift card merchant’s rapid growth in Australia and its expansion into North America, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Jamie Samaha will step into the role following seven years with global technology company Mastercard.
Hoptroff, the timing solutions provider offering resilient, traceable and precise time to businesses, has announced that Tim Richards is making the transition from COO to CEO. Richards joined Hoptroff four years ago and has held the pivotal role of Chief Operating Officer, guiding the business at an operational and strategic level to partnerships with BT Radianz and leading hardware provider Orolia, and to R&D projects with Innovate UK. With over 30 years of experience growing technology companies, as well as international board level experience at blue-chip organisations such as Disney, Hallmark and QVC, Richards brings an understanding of the complex workflows, systems, technologies and practises required to run and scale the technology company of today. Richards will take on the role as CEO with immediate effect as Simon Kenny steps into the role of Chief Strategy Officer.
Otter.ai has announced the appointment of Greg Holmes as a strategic advisor to the company. Holmes brings over 20 years of experience in sales and GTM leadership and will bring valuable guidance to Otter.ai’s continued growth specifically to efficiently turn individual users into a full enterprise deployment. Holmes’s background is in collaborative SaaS products. He is the former Chief Revenue Officer of Zoom Video Communications, having led the company through exponential sales and customer growth between 2013 and 2020. Prior to Zoom, Holmes worked for WebEx Cisco where he built out the web touch selling model and ran WebEx’s Canadian business. Holmes joins Otter.ai’s advisory board at a time when the company is growing quickly, benefiting from the major shift to more remote and hybrid work. With GTM experience and knowledge in the meeting collaboration space, Holmes will provide strategic guidance as Otter grows and help boost the company’s sales efforts.
Duco, a global provider of cloud-based data integrity and reconciliation services, has announced that Chris Stevens has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer, taking overall responsibility for all of Duco’s revenue-focused activities including sales, customer success, pre-sales and professional services. Stevens joins from Nasdaq where he held the position of Vice President, Global Head of Sales and Account Management, Corporate Solutions before moving on to Chief Revenue Officer for Nasdaq Governance Solutions.
Digital agency Organic has announced the appointment of Dids Reeve as the agency’s new Head of Paid Media. Reporting into Charlie Lycett-Smith, Operations Director at Organic, Reeve is joining the team from AccuraCast where she was Agency Marketing Lead. The new hire is indicative of Organic’s consistent growth. Bringing almost a decade of experience in the industry, Reeve will oversee all the agency’s media clients including Capita, Improve International and Honestly Tasty. She will also collaborate with all departments from across the business (notably SEO, UX and Dev) to deliver the best possible results for clients.
Magdalena Kosińska, Marketing Director CEER (Central & Eastern Europe, Russia & Central Asia) at Philips Domestic Appliances, will co-chair this year’s Effie Awards Europe. Kosińska has over 20 years of marketing experience gained in top FMCG & SDA companies, such as Philips, L’Oreal, Danone, Kraft Foods or Reckitt Benckiser. Currently, she holds the position of Marketing Director at Philips Domestic Appliances, being responsible for the region of Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Since 2019, the Effie Europe Jury is co-chaired by a client and an agency leader. Carmen Fernández de Alarcón, CEO of Havas Spain will accompany Magdalena on this journey.
Creative X’s Jayshree Viswanathan and Anyone’s Amy Dick have been named as SheSays’ new London Joint Presidents. Taking over the position from Ogilvy’s Joyce Kremer after her successful two-year term, Viswanathan and Dick are both change advocates in the creative industry. They have both been actively involved for several years in SheSays’ global creative network for women in a variety of roles. Viswanathan recently joined Creative X at Meta as a Senior Creative and has been previously named a Campaign Future Leader and was part of the Google RARE Leadership cohort. Dick is Head of Impact at Anyone, an app democratising access to high-value networks, via 5 minute 1:1 calls. She sits on the Advisory Board for University of the Arts London, setting strategic direction to future proof the creative industries – and is also named in The Dots 100 Rising Stars.
Publicis Media has announced the appointment of Rachel Hall to lead its new Advanced TV solution in the UK, PMX Lift. Hall will report to Steve Bignell, CEO of the trading and investment practice of Publicis Media, Publicis Media Exchange (PMX). Hall joins the PMX UK leadership team after almost seven years at WPP’s advanced TV business, Finecast, where she helped launch and scale the business in the UK. She led as Managing Partner, Business and Commercial Operations for her final two years and prior to that was their Head of Client Services. She joined Finecast in 2015 from MediaCom where she had worked for 17 years growing the Direct MediaCom arm of the business, working with clients such as Sky, Direct Line and T-Mobile. In addition to Hall’s appointment, Publicis Media has also promoted Starcom’s Head of Investment, John Heather, to the new role of PMX Head of Trading. Also reporting to Steve Bignell, Heather will also sit on the PMX UK leadership team to oversee trading relationships with key media vendor partners, and to maximise performance for all clients across Publicis Media agencies. Prior to his role at Starcom, he was responsible for all AV trading across Publicis Media UK, and the first point of contact for all group negotiations with the AV media owners. He “cut his teeth” working in the TV department at Zenith where he worked on L’Oréal, Reckitt Benckiser and KFC. He became Head of TV in 2004 and was then made Head of Investment in 2010.
Outbrain Inc. a recommendation platform for the open web, has announced the appointment of Paul Knegten, to the newly created position of Chief Marketing Officer, expanding the organization’s global marketing efforts, following the company’s recent IPO. Knegten will lead Outbrain’s global marketing initiatives and will be instrumental in promoting Outbrain’s global brand. He will oversee the global and regional planning, development and execution of Outbrain’s strategic and product marketing programs and campaigns. With a deep background in advertising technology, Knegten has made a name for himself across brand leaders such as Comcast, Yahoo!, MediaMath and more. Prior to joining Outbrain, Knegten was CMO of Beeswax, which was acquired in 2021 by Comcast’s FreeWheel. Following the acquisition of Beeswax, Knegten joined FreeWheel, the leading CTV platform, as a senior marketing executive. Knegten brings his experience in this hyper growth sector of ad tech to Outbrain following its acquisition of video intelligence AG, a contextual video platform in the CTV space.
Guy Ben-dov, a gaming and advertising veteran with more than 25 years of experience, returns to in-game advertising in a new role as EVP, Business Development, HD Games at Anzu, the in-game advertising solution. Ben-dov was one of the first pioneers of in-game advertising, having headed up Double Fusion, an in-game advertising company that spearheaded the space in 2004. There he worked with Xbox, PlayStation, and major game publishers to grow the in-game advertising market. He also served as the CEO and Co-Founder of Side-Kick Games, developing and publishing mobile, VR, and console games. A serial entrepreneur, Ben-dov is passionate about bringing media-oriented products to the market to create sustainable and growing businesses.
Vivaldi, the independent business and brand transformation firm, has appointed Mauricio Andujar, a seasoned technologist, designer and growth leader, to a global partner role. Andujar joins the firm on a mission to deepen its digital transformation and innovation capabilities across global markets. He will leverage his experience working with clients, thought leaders and talent around the world, to lead a best-in-class global digital team. For the past 12 years, Andujar served as co-founder and CEO of LIQUID, a global and digital-centric innovation and transformation hub. There, he orchestrated a team that provided end-to-end solutions such as service and product design, growth, venture building and open innovation to industry-leading companies. He also designed, launched, and scaled LIQUID’s Venture Studio, specializing in incubating and accelerating early-stage startups.
A spider, a look, and lots of shiny eyes: To accompany the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung and Leo Burnett tell a very special love story. The focus of the new campaign video is the little spider Sam, who falls head over heels in love. The object of her desire: the new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Sounds crazy? Not at all, because the camera lenses of the Galaxy S22 Ultra are the most beautiful “spider eyes” in the world for Sam. The unusual story was developed together with the creative agency Leo Burnett. The media campaign with a focus on online video starts on 10 February. The new campaign will be distributed via a large online video flight focused on YouTube. In addition, the video will be spread through placements on Twitter as well as native ads on major audience media. The media agency is Starcom Germany, a sister agency to Leo Burnett within the Publicis Network.
Intuita has announced that Andy Leach has joined the company as Director of Strategic Partnerships, to drive further commercial opportunities for the firm’s expanding enterprise client base. He will be responsible for establishing and implementing a robust partner programme for onboarding and nurturing its growing technology and academic partners, to support both client growth and employee career opportunities at Intuita. He will also focus on delivering a partner strategy in the North West of the UK, and will work with local and national academies and Universities to enable students to progress in their IT and Data careers. Leach, who was previously Director of Solution Architecture & Enterprise Data, Virgin Media, brings a wealth of IT, Data and end-to-end delivery management experience from his previous roles.
