Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, has appointed Kate Bird as the new Senior Director of Marketing for EMEA. Ms Bird joins from Condé Nast where she has held the position of Global VP of Consumer Revenue since 2019, responsible for the revenue growth of Condé Nast’s global brands and subscription models, including Vogue and GQ, in over 30 markets around the world. Reporting to Doug Frisbie, Snap’s Global VP of Global Business Marketing, Ms Bird will lead the EMEA Marketing team, which aims to inspire and educate advertisers, agencies, and small businesses, across the region, about how they can use Snap’s engaging advertising and Augmented Reality formats to reach Snapchat’s community of 750 million people and achieve meaningful business results. Prior to working at Conde Nast, Ms Bird was CMO and GM for the Sun. She also held a number of marketing roles at News UK, with The Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Scibids, the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) for digital marketing, has announced the appointment of Matthew Bushby as Head of Customer Success for the UK. Bushby will be responsible for optimising efficiencies in Scibids’ programmatic team and delivering scalable results and future-proofed programmatic strategies for its clients. Prior to Scibids, Bushby was Head of Programmatic at Zenith UK where he led the team, wider agency and clients on programmatic strategy and activation. Before that, Bushby worked as the Director of Programmatic at MediaCom and specialised in programmatic optimisation at MediaMath.
Amplience, the digital commerce platform has announced the appointment of Imran Anwar to its executive leadership team as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with immediate effect. A seasoned CFO, Imran Anwar comes to Amplience from his role as Group Chief Financial Officer at Epos Now, the retail software development company, and brings extensive experience in scaling SaaS and ecommerce businesses. Anwar began his career at PwC where he worked for 14 years and ultimately became a director. He was Divisional CFO at Euro Garage Group, and then Deputy Group CFO at The Hut Group where he helped take the company through multiple acquisitions and an IPO on the London Stock Exchange.
Immersive experience studio Pixel Artworks has announced the appointment of Tomaz Kljaković to the newly formed London-based role of Global Growth & Marketing Director following the business doubling in size in the last 12 months. Kljaković joins Pixel Artworks from George P. Johnson (GPJ) where he launched the New Zealand office and worked with clients including Google, LVMH, Vodafone and TikTok. He brings over 15 years of expertise; working in global experiential marketing role spanning the US, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia. In this newly created role, Tomaz will be working closely with Pixel Artwork’s MD Tom Burch and Middle East MD Alex Apthorpe to expand its specialist offering of creating immersive experiences with embedded technology.
multilocal, the supply-side expert, has appointed Justin Lim as the new general manager for its APAC operations, effective May 2023, with Ryan Nash also joining the team as sales director. Lim has been working in ad tech for over a decade, having started his career in London with DAZN, where he held various commercial and operational roles and launched its ad sales division across Asia Pacific before joining Unruly to do the same, before it was acquired by News Corp for US$176m (£60.7m). He was then GM APAC for Sublime which specialises in high-impact non-intrusive digital advertising and was acquired by Azerion Group in 2021. Having provided strategic consultancy services to ad tech businesses expanding into Asia, he is an expert in programmatic media buying. Meanwhile, Nash has spent over a decade in the media industry. An experienced sales manager with particular expertise in digital strategy, having worked in both the UK and APAC markets, most recently as sales director, SEA, at MiQ, he was also sales director at AdColony, in Singapore, and at SaaS mobile ad tech platform, Pocketmath.
Manchester-based digital product and service company, Code Computerlove, has appointed Hannah Pickford as People and Culture Lead. Joining from Social Chain where she was Happiness Manager, Pickford’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Code after its recent move into WPP’s new Manchester Campus. Over 550 staff across several agencies, including EssenceMediacom and Wavemaker, will now be based at the new site in Enterprise City to drive growth and creativity. Pickford’s role will focus on overseeing Code’s overall employee experience, enhancing culture through onboarding, recruitment, benefits, events and supporting learning and development.
Babbel, the online language learning platform, is announcing the appointment of two executives to its management board: Both starting their Babbel journey in April 2023, Kathleen Radford joins the Berlin-based company as CLXO while Dr. Christian Baier joins as CFO and Managing Director of the Babbel AG. Kathleen Radford is a veteran product leader with proven customer focus, having worked in six different countries and at prominent tech corporations like Microsoft and Amazon, brought startup products & businesses to life at Blinkbox, and recently led product & innovation at comparethemarket, HSBC and Entain. Having been a former language teacher, she is passionate about building out Babbel’s ecosystem of various language learning experiences to help its millions of language learners succeed. Dr. Christian Baier is an experienced business leader, having most recently served as CFO and COO at Ströer, Germany’s publicly listed advertising giant. Christian brings extensive finance know-how, deep operations skills, and strong investor relations experience to Babbel. He was also MD at Zalando’s private label organization zLabels and worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey. Christian will join Babbel Group AG’s management board and take its Finance, Legal and Strategy functions to the next level.
Persistent Systems has announced the appointment of Gurvinder Sahni as Chief Marketing Officer. In this role, he will be responsible for leading and setting the strategic vision for Persistent’s global marketing team. Sahni joins Persistent with extensive experience in global enterprise marketing transformation. He joins the Company after 20 years at Wipro Ltd., spanning various leadership roles, including Chief of Staff for the Chairman’s office, Strategic Advisor to the Chief Growth Office and Chief Marketing Officer, among others. Sahni has several certifications, including Black Belt Leadership and Green Belt Six Sigma and is ranked as one of the top 15 marketers on Twitter by Bloggers Alliance. He brings a passion for results-driven marketing, collaboration, client-centricity and influencer marketing. Sahni will be a member of Persistent’s executive leadership team and is based out of New Jersey, USA.
Azerion, the digital entertainment and media platform, has announced the appointment of three new hires to its team in London, strengthening the company’s international presence. Lucy Whichello joins as Account Director, Marco Evans as Digital Account Manager, and Sophie Marsh-Baldry as Programmatic Account Manager. Lucy Whichello will be responsible for prospecting and maintaining clients at Mindshare and EssenceMediacom, both for the UK market and internationally. Whichello will also lead on Azerion’s proposition after a series of recent acquisitions and mergers such as Hybrid Theory and Targetspot. She joins the company from TripleLift where she worked as Sales Manager. Prior to that Whichello worked at MediaCom UK as a Digital Account Director. Sophie Marsh-Baldry ran the programmatic campaign set up and managed the programmatic delivery for a number of clients at Unruly. She will now be responsible for the running programmatic campaigns for a range of high profile clients in the UK market for Azerion, as well as liaising with internal teams to ensure a smooth delivery and optimised performance. Joining the company from Future Publishing, Marco Evans will be managing the prospecting of new clients as well as managing the relationships with mSix and EssenceMediaCom in the UK and internationally. Evans will also be in charge of selling and promoting the company’s offering, and upselling on current campaigns.
Creative agency, Rankin Creative has announced the appointment of Warren Beeby as its new Chief Creative Officer. Beeby brings with him over 30 years of experience in the creative industry, having previously been a partner and co-creative director at independent design studio, SPIN, where he worked on global brands, such as Nike and Levi’s, before founding his own agency, BB/Saunders in 2004. Since 2015 Beeby has focused on the power of purpose and sustainability to transform brands at change agency Futerra. In his new role, Beeby will be responsible for leading the creative team and driving the agency’s vision and direction. He will work closely with Strategy & Development Partner, Nimi Raja, and Head of Account Management, Amy Claridge to continue to build brands through culturally relevant strategic ideas.
Technology challenger specialist, Harvard, has announced the appointment of Beata Zacharska as Senior Digital Strategist. Zacharska joins the agency’s six-strong Strategy and Planning team, where she will be responsible for driving digital strategy, audience insights and brand planning for tech clients across Harvard and its consumer tech agency, Eat the Fox. Zacharska joins the agency following her recent role overseeing Google’s ‘Think with Google’ marketing programme. She has more than ten years’ experience in digital marketing and data-driven strategy across global brands, having previously held roles as campaigns director at a retail tech start-up and at advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.
Hannah Liu Sherman has joined strategic and creative company ScienceMagic as Managing Partner in the Brand Team. Prior to joining, she held senior roles at agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, AMV BBDO, Fold7 and 4Creative. She has coordinated creative marketing strategies that connect with people’s values and lifestyles and delivered award-winning work for brands such as Carlsberg, HSBC, Diageo and LVMH. She also served as Director of Client Services at Quintessentially, the luxury lifestyle management group, where she deepened her experience across partnerships, PR and events.
Workhuman®, the company revolutionising how employees celebrate, connect with, and appreciate each other in the workplace, has announced that renowned industry leader and multiple award-winner, KeyAnna Schmiedl, has joined its leadership team in the role of Chief Human Experience Officer. In this capacity, Schmiedl will guide all of the organisation’s human experience strategy, including talent, total rewards, learning and development, culture and employee experience, organisational design, corporate social responsibility, and DEI initiatives to build a culture of recognition and belonging fundamental to an unparalleled human-first workplace. Schmiedl brings a wealth of experience and passion to the role; her career includes leadership roles at Mozilla, Wayfair, and Santander, earning recognition from Fortune, Forbes, The Human Rights Campaign and the Boston Business Journal for her outspoken commitment to diversity, equity and belonging.
