Wecasa is investing heavily in building its UK marketing team in order to grow its offering in the country following a $17.7 million funding round raised in 2021. In July 2022 Wecasa hired Emma Mason as UK Brand Manager to lead and expand the brand and communications strategy in the UK to fully integrate its services across the country. Mason was previously Marketing & Communications Manager at Lunii. Mason has a track record for leading transformational change and driving growth. She joined Lunii in 2019, becoming the brand’s first ever Marketing and Communications Manager leading the launch strategy of its brand in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Vivaldi, the global business and brand transformation firm, has announced the appointment of Darren Richardson as Global Senior Partner, Chief Creative & Technology. Richardson has led some of the world’s most award-winning agencies as the Chief Creative and Managing Director, bridging the gap between traditional and digital creative, working in the UK, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, and Germany. Prior to joining Vivaldi, Richardson was Global Chief Creative Technologist & Global Client Executive Creative Director at VMLY&R and has also held Chief Creative and Managing Director positions at Havas Europe and BBDO & Proximity Dusseldorf.
SevenRooms, a guest experience and retention platform used by restaurant, hotel, nightlife and entertainment operators in more than 250 cities, has announced the hiring of Lee Saunderson, former UK Country Manager at Lightspeed, as Head of Sales, EMEA. In his role, Saunderson will spearhead SevenRooms’ sales and growth strategy across new and existing markets.
QuoStar, the IT consultancy and service provider, has appointed three new senior members to its recently restructured board as part of the firm’s continued growth plans. Since the start of the year, 20 new people have joined the experienced QuoStar team, with the new additions set to bolster the company’s growth trajectory in 2022. Andrew Forder, who has nearly 20 years’ experience in the IT service sector, joins QuoStar as Commercial Director. Previously Head of Sales at Nasstar, Andrew has a wealth of sales and account management experience in both mid-size and large UK organisations. Joining as Chief Technology Officer, Gavin Vickers will take charge of service delivery, IT project management and pre-sales processes. Well-respected industry veteran Gavin was previously Principal Consultant at Nasstar and brings unrivalled experience and capabilities in technical transformation to the role. QuoStar also welcomes Neil Clark as its first Cloud Services Director. Clark, who will lead the cloud services team, has designed, built, and managed numerous cloud platforms over the last decade. Clark previously held the position of Director of Cloud Services at GCI and Nasstar before moving to Head of Service at IT firm Transparity.
Pure-play customer data platform (CDP) BlueConic has appointed Ethan Halliwell as CFO, where he will be responsible for building a world-class finance organization and championing financial and operational excellence at the company. Halliwell will be based in the Boston office. Prior to BlueConic, Halliwell spent seven years at ServiceChannel, where he worked to build the business from $12m in recurring revenue in 2014 to over $100m in 2021. His career includes time spent at Vixxo, Sallie Mae, and Wells Fargo working to build outstanding teams and fueling growth.
Toluna, the consumer insights provider and parent company of Harris Interactive and KuRunData, has announced the appointment of Jeff Claypoole to General Manager, Americas. In this role, Claypoole will be responsible for continuing to drive exceptional sales and revenue growth in the region through his leadership, organizational building, customer and prospect engagement, and planning and execution of go-to-market strategies. Prior to joining Toluna, Claypoole held key leadership sales roles at both Affinova and NielsenIQ, where he was responsible for driving innovation, increasing success of product portfolios, and building high-performance teams. Most recently, he led the NielsenIQ BASES Price and Portfolio business, where he built and managed a team of over 120 associates operating in 100+ markets around the world.
Tina Playle has joined the team at St Albans based marketing agency OnBrand bolstering its digital and web development expertise as business continues to grow. The agency has had a busy few months as it launches a number of new websites for clients and takes on new projects. Playle joins as a content designer with experience in all things digital and social. She has specific expertise in short form video for social media including TikTok which is a growing requirement for clients.
Medius, a provider of AP Automation and wider spend management solutions, announces the appointment of a new Chief Operating Officer, as the latest move to further accelerate the company’s growth. Branden Jenkins, based in Las Vegas, is an expert in driving rapid business growth, leading cross-functional teams and go-to-market strategies. Jenkins joined Medius in 2021 as Chief Strategy Officer, playing a key role in improving the operationalization of many new strategies, particularly in go-to-market, product strategy, corporate development, and alliances. With 20 years of executive leadership experience, he holds first-hand experience in large-scale SaaS growth. Prior to joining Medius, Jenkins spent nine years at Oracle NetSuite, rising to VP of Strategy, where he helped to grow the company from $250m to billions in revenue. He also held the positions of VP of Target Markets, and General Manager of Global Retail.
Shutterstock, Inc., a global creative platform for transformative brands and media companies, has announced that Sejal Amin is joining the Company’s leadership team and Executive Committee as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective September 12, 2022. With more than 20 years of global leadership, product and technology experience, Amin will deliver a technology vision and strategy that transforms Shutterstock’s technology platform to deliver a new and unparalleled experience to customers and contributors. Recently, she was Chief Product and Technology Officer for Khoros, a Vista Portfolio company where she was integrating a distributed Product and Technology organization while defining a Product and Operational strategy to execute on the company’s vision and growth goals. Just prior to that, she was CTO for the Thomson Reuters Tax and Accounting Tax Professionals Business.
Illuma, the British contextual AI specialist, has appointed a Global Client Director to support its growing network of global brands and agencies. Rosa Almarza is an award-winning marketing and digital transformation expert who spent 13 years at Procter & Gamble, leading programmatic media projects for P&G Spain as well as overseeing digital strategy for the P&G brands. More recently, Almarza has also consulted for GlaxoSmithKline, Merkal Calzados and other leading brands and agencies, further deepening her expertise in buy-side media, digital and programmatic.
