Global channel agency Sherpa has announced the hire of Sam Batstone, the agency’s newly appointed Client Services Director, alongside new Channel Growth Executive, Shiv Sharma and Account Executive, Eshita Shah. The hires continue the agency’s period of growth and focus on bolstering resource and talent. In her new role as Client Services Director, Batstone will lead and manage all operations for sherpa working closely with CEO, Tom Perry to help support a high performing client team, drive excellence in commercial management, and enable further agency growth. Coming from Creation Agency, where she was Business Director, Batstone brings over 20 years of agency experience to her role at Sherpa. Sharma will be working in the business development team, reporting into the agency’s Channel Growth Specialist Carolyn Wakeling. He will work on increasing the scope of Sherpa’s current outreach, focusing on the US market and Partner_Activate.com, Sherpa’s new platform solution. Shah will work on the client services team, with a specific focus on accounts that deliver incentives, MDF and communications solutions to Sherpa’s roster of global tech Partners.
Creatopy, the ad design automation platform, has announced the appointment of Bogdan Carlescu as VP of Marketing. This new leadership role will see Carlescu elevate and drive the business’s marketing activities, enabling Creatopy to become a leader in the creative management space. Carlescu brings 15 years of extensive experience in developing, marketing and selling tech solutions for various SaaS providers. His previous role as Director of Product Marketing at Bitdefender was pivotal to the business strategy, where he led multiple successful product launches and marketing campaigns leveraging Bitdefender’s expansion in the global cybersecurity market.
Havas Entertainment, Havas Media Group’s entertainment and culture proposition, has announced the promotion of Ashley Bolt to the position of Managing Partner, Gaming following a period of significant growth for its gaming business. Bolt steps up to the role from the position of Client Partner, Gaming. Over the last 18 months, Bolt has brought in a raft of new brands as well as developing Havas Entertainment’s existing gaming business, driving a 30% growth in revenue from the gaming vertical. With 23 years of industry experience, Bolt started his career at Wheel (which latterly became LBi, now Digitas) and has also held positions at Think Publishing and Total Media.
The Technology Business Management (TBM) Council, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to advancing the discipline of TBM through education, standards, and collaboration between IT leaders and business partners, has revealed the new members of its EMEA Regional Advisory Board, who will use their expertise to support the Council’s regional membership in improving their technology investment practices. The new EMEA Regional Advisory Board was set up as part of the TBM Council’s commitment to supporting its diverse global membership with leadership and initiatives tailored to local trends and needs. The Board will meet on a quarterly basis to set the agenda for the EMEA branch of the Council and will also use their own expertise in TBM implementation to provide education and guidance to members on key IT finance topics. The EMEA Regional Advisory Board members are: Markus Rautert – SVP, Technology Enablement, Adidas (Board Co-Chair), Jenny Wood – Global COO, Services, NatWest Bank (Board Co-Chair), Hillevi Agranius – VP, Finance & Performance, Securitas Group, Giuseppe Amoroso – Head of Digital Strategy & Governance, Enel, Jack Bischof – VP, Europe & Middle East, TBM Council, René Botter – SVP & CIO, ASML, Christoph Hanewinkel – Managing Director (CFO), E.ON Digital Technology, Frank Hocke – Former Senior Executive, IT, Volkswagen Group, Tillmann Lukosch – CIO, R+V Versicherung AG, Tony McCandless – CTO, Blue Prism, Marco Moretti – CIO, A2A Group, Hartmut Mueller – VP IT Technology & Cross Functions, Mercedes-Benz AG and Mian Shah – Business Finance Manager (Head of) IT Finance, Emirates Group.
ICE, the world’s first integrated music copyright, licensing and processing hub, is excited to announce that Govinda Fichtner will be joining as Chief Technology Officer to lead on the company’s transformation and data management. He joins ICE from IONOS, a leading web hosting and Cloud provider in Europe. Fichtner will spearhead the company’s innovative approach to copyright and online processing, ensuring ICE stays ahead of the modern data challenge. In his role, he will lead the development of new solutions to support the company’s CMO, as well as publisher customers in delivering value for their songwriters. Fichtner brings more than 23 years of experience in the IT industry to the role at ICE, having started his career as a software engineer in the media industry and having worked in different engineering-related roles for companies ranging from start-ups to large corporations like T-Systems, IBM and lately IONOS.
Virtue Worldwide, the creative agency powered by VICE, has announced the appointment of Monika Zalaite as head of business development for Europe. Based in the London office, Zalaite will lead the growth strategy across the region, drive new business opportunities and build the agency’s profile with clients and consultants. She will report to Suresh Raj, Global Chief Growth Officer at Virtue. Zalaite joins from Saatchi & Saatchi where she worked as head of new business and marketing. Prior to that she was head of new business and marketing at MullenLowe Group and has previously held positions at Leagas Delaney and Creative Brief.
Texthelp has appointed Cathy Donnelly as its Chief People Officer (CPO). A senior HR executive with over 25 years of experience, Donnelly’s role will ensure Texthelp’s business strategy is successfully reflected across all HR activity. Donnelly brings a wealth of experience having spent almost 10 years as the Senior Director of Talent with Liberty IT, an official ‘Great Place to Work’, earning Top 10 placement in the UK and Ireland rankings in 2021. Additionally, Donnelly acted as the Global Change Management Lead for Liberty Mutual’s Global HR model which saw her design, develop and deliver change management and communication strategies across 28 countries and 50,000 employees. Prior to Liberty IT, Donnelly was HR Manager for IKEA UK & Ireland, with responsibility for leading the HR strategy for over 8,000 employees. In this role, Donnelly led a team of over 25 HR professionals in Head Office with additional matrix responsibility for 20 HR Managers within stores.
Chelsea Coates, formerly VP of People at GWI, will be promoted to Chief People Officer at the London-based technology scale-up. Following its latest series B funding of $180m, Coates will play a critical role in supporting GWI through the next phase of its ambitious growth plans. Coates brings 15 years of experience working in the People space, heading up learning and development teams through rapid scale-up at the likes of WeWork and Groupon. She is adept at lending her leadership skills to help businesses and leaders navigate their teams through the complexities of hyper-growth and business transformations, all while driving a healthy culture.
RM, a supplier of technology to the education sector, will appoint Chris Rothwell as its new Group Strategy and Customer Director. Rothwell has almost 20 years of experience in the technology industry and was previously Director of Education for Microsoft where he was responsible for supporting over 30,000 Microsoft Education customers across schools, colleges, universities and more. Rothwell’s new role with RM will ensure they stay at the forefront of the industry. From his experience of helping customers use technology to transform their organisation, enabling richer teaching and learning, and supporting the development of 21st Century skills for students and staff, Rothwell brings to RM great knowledge and experience of working with customers and partners across every phase of Education.
