Independent media agency The Kite Factory has hired WaterAid’s Charley Day to the role of Strategy Director, further strengthening their expertise across the charity sector. Day, has worked with The Kite Factory for nearly 10 years as their client in her role as Supporter Engagement Lead at WaterAid. Prior to this, she spent eight years in the retention team at the NSPCC where she was responsible for fundraising strategy and long term supporter engagement. She will report to TKF’s newly-promoted Head of Planning, Christian Taylor, and work alongside the agency’s Head of Charity, Caroline Dolan, as the team continue to build senior charity client relationships – understanding their world and their business challenges.
Logicalis, an international IT solutions and managed service provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Damian Skendrovic to the role of CEO for the EMEA region, as of 8th March 2022. As EMEA CEO, Skendrovic will work to scale Logicalis’ offering across the EMEA region, utilising the teams’ local expertise, whilst enhancing Logicalis’ position in the market. Skendrovic joins Logicalis from NTT where he was Executive Vice President and CEO of Managed Services. During his time at NTT, he built their global managed services business to over $1 billion in revenues through a combination of mergers and acquisitions and organic growth.
Proofpoint, a global leader in cybersecurity and compliance, has announced the appointment of industry veteran Neill Burton as Vice President of Channels and Alliances for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In his new role, Neill Burton will oversee Proofpoint’s channel and alliance operations across an important theatre for the company, underscoring Proofpoint’s commitment to its channel business and investment in the growth of its partner ecosystem in the region. Based out of the UK, Burton brings a wealth of experience working in IT and cybersecurity, both on the partner and vendor side. Before Proofpoint, he held various senior channel leadership positions at F5, BMC Software, Hitachi Data Systems and Computacenter.
Topsort, a next-gen adtech company democratizing sponsored listings, has announced that Bo Liu has joined as VP of Customer Success. Liu is an industry veteran boasting over 17 years of experience and joins from Kevel (previously Adzerk) where he also served as VP of Customer Success. Previous to this, he was responsible for customer success at HackerOne and Amplitude Analytics.
Fluid Commerce has appointed June Gil to head up and expand its specialist Google advertising services. As Head of Paid Search, Gil will be responsible for developing strategies for retail clients from the B2B, home and garden, beauty and fashion sectors, who are keen to achieve growth by targeting shoppers on Google. Gil is also tasked with growing the team, both in terms of headcount and through new client wins, and raising its profile in the industry. She will work closely with Fluid’s Amazon and paid social media services to ensure there is a joined-up approach to client briefs. Joining from CTI Digital, where she spent four years, Gil has 12 years’ ecommerce experience and has also worked at McCann and boutique agency Clickoo.
Coast Digital has hired a new Head of UX, Robert Powell. Powell previously held the role of Principal UX at Saint-Gobain where he was responsible for the transformation strategy of multiple UK construction brands. At Coast Digital, he is currently working on projects for Standard Bank, Benchmark Capital & BSI.
Gravitee.io, the open source solution provider whose platform enables the effortless control of an organization’s API ecosystem, has announced the appointment of Herb Cunitz as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Cunitz brings decades of experience in leadership and open-source data technologies, and a long track record of leading innovative and diverse teams around the world.
Previously, Cunitz was the President of Hortonworks, where he was responsible for scaling the company’s commercial open source software (OSS) solution to manage big data workloads.
Shojin Property Partners, the online real estate investment platform that lowers the barriers to entry for investors across the globe, has hired recently exited marketing agency CEO Peter Grange as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The appointment comes at a pivotal moment for Shojin, as it looks to close out its Series A and scale the business with new investment opportunities across the globe. Award-winning marketer Grange joins Shojin after selling Oi – a global marketing business he started 17 years before – in October 2021 to pursue new ventures. At Oi he built the business across four locations to become one of the largest offshore creative agencies, with a plethora of bluechip financial services, tech and property brands, and with sales exceeding £30m.
Doherty Associates has announced the appointment of Sam Lumb as its new Sales Director. An experienced and respected senior IT sales leader, Lumb joins Doherty Associates at a time of company expansion, with a strengthened senior management team following the recent appointment of Andrea Haywood as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Doherty Associates, Lumb was the European New Client Engagement Director at digital transformation company, Ensono, where his team worked with mid to large enterprises across multiple verticals and service lines. He joined Ensono as part of its 2016 acquisition of Attenda, where he helped to grow the business as New Client Engagement Director and as a member of the senior leadership team. Preceding this, Lumb spent several years at IBM as a Sales Executive and Consultant.
Edinburgh head quartered recruitment specialists Head Resourcing, has announced the internal promotion of Lyle Ritchie to Head of Talent Solutions where he will lead an expert team responsible for attracting and supplying a diverse range of top talent across IT, digital and business change sectors. Ritchie has more than ten years’ experience in IT, Digital & Change recruitment specialising in senior IT roles with a strong track record across a range of industries from financial services, FMCG, Consultancy, scaling businesses and the consumer motor trade. He has quickly climbed the ranks at Head Resourcing starting initially as a recruitment consultant in 2013, progressing to Deputy Manager and then Managing Consultant in 2020 before taking on his latest role as Head of Talent Solutions.
Following a record year for the agency, Scotland’s largest creative agency Leith has announced the hire of Neil Williams as Head of Production. Williams joins from Havas Lynx where he held the position of Head of Film for five years; heading up a team of 25 people across production, post-production, 3D and live-streaming. The last six months has seen Leith make a string of new hires; John McPartland joined from Havas to take on the helm as Creative Director for all of Leith Health’s clients. Camilla Rossi left McCann London to be Group Account Director at Leith, and Vic Milne was promoted to Director of Strategy and Planning, replacing David Amers after 28 years in the position.
Octagon, the preeminent creative and marketing agency in sport, entertainment, and culture, has announced the addition of Dan Harrison and Jonny Watson as Creative Directors, bolstering the agency’s roster of senior creative talent. Harrison and Watson will be based in Octagon’s London office and report to Executive Creative Director, Josh Green. Harrison and Watson, better known as “Dan and Jonny,” each have over 30 years of experience in the industry, 17 of those as a team. They joined forces at Archibald Ingall Stretton, before moving on to Dare, DLKW Lowe, and VCCP, working across Sony, The FA, Vodafone, Halfords, and Compare The Market. The two industry veterans have worked with Octagon on project-based work throughout 2021, but the permanent move will now see the pair continue to guide creative output full-time for a number of Octagon accounts, including Paddy Power and Standard Chartered.
In addition to Harrison and Watson, James Logan has been promoted to Head of Client Services of Octagon’s London office. Logan will lead the department, as well as directly manage a number of client accounts, including Paddy Power, Snickers, Budweiser, BMW, and Allbirds. Logan will report into Octagon UK Managing Director Joel Seymour-Hyde, and Head of Client Services for Europe Yoo-Jin Shin. Zee Nazrudeen has also been named Resource Director. Nazrudeen joins Octagon from Rapp, having previously run thriving creative departments at both Proximity and Karmarama. Nazrudeen will report into Head of Creative Delivery, Lisa Mesztig.
Stint, the student work app, has welcomed further senior hires to the business with a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) joining the team. As the new COO, Jeremy Rawlinson will be focussed on leading sales, account management, student acquisition and onboarding, and growth operations. Rawlinson joins Stint from Sonder, a serviced-apartment and hotel operator, where he was UK & Ireland General Manager. He was also an early stage employee at Deliveroo, starting as Market Launch Manager and moving to Global Director of Expansion over the course of his six years there. Mike Anderson has been appointed CFO, where he will be focusing on the financial strategy and business planning at Stint. He joins Stint from his CFO role at ROUND, the hospitality-focussed marketplace app. A chartered accountant with over twenty years’ asset management experience, Anderson was Head of Investor Relations at both CVC Credit Partners and Pemberton Asset Management Group.
