Cobalt has named Eric Brinkman as its new Chief Product Officer. In this role, Brinkman will lead Cobalt’s product vision, enhancing the existing suite of offerings and identifying innovative ways to meet and exceed the needs of current and future customers. Brinkman is a seasoned technology industry veteran, with 15 years of experience driving and sustaining long-term product growth. Previously Senior Director of Product at GitLab, Brinkman founded the company’s very first growth team, which evolved into a critical component of the company’s business approach.
Five9, Inc. has announced the appointment of Genefa Murphy, PhD, an industry recognised global marketer with an impressive background in enterprise software as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer. Murphy joins Five9 from Micro Focus where as CMO she led a worldwide team who drove brand, core messaging, influencer marketing, regional and global campaigns, digital demand and sales, and technical enablement. She was also the executive sponsor for Micro Focus’ Corporate Social Responsibility Programme.
Loui Blake, serial entrepreneur & angel investor, has invested in Embargo loyalty app & joined as an advisor following the tech-startup’s significant growth during Covid-19. With a number of hospitality ventures & alternative protein investments under his belt, Blake has elected to diversify his portfolio & backed Embargo in its latest fundraising round.
Cybersecurity and integrated risk management provider, SureCloud has appointed Caren Havelock to the newly created position of Chief Marketing Officer. Havelock joins from Ping Identity where, for over four years, she built and led the EMEA marketing team. Prior to that, she held senior marketing positions in cybersecurity with Symantec and CyberGuard. With over 21 years of IT marketing experience, Havelock has a proven track record of building and growing high-performing teams, while delivering significant and sustainable results.
Redwood Software, the cloud-based process automation provider, has announced the appointment of Amede Hungerford as its Chief Marketing Officer. Hungerford brings more than two decades of expertise in driving growth and innovation strategies in the enterprise and software technology market. In previous roles, Hungerford served as the CMO of Boomi, a Dell Technologies company, helping the cloud-based integration vendor grow revenue from $60 million to more than $220 million in less than three years. Hungerford also served as vice president, Global Marketing, at cloud ERP pioneer NetSuite for more than five years, along with marketing leadership roles at Reflektion, Sybase and HP.
CausaLens, a deep tech company, has appointed Dr Hana Chockler, Associate Professor at King’s College London with more than two decades of research experience in causality, as Principal Investigator to lead one of their research teams.
Felipe Polo, Co-chairman and Founder of leading software development company, GuideSmiths, has been appointed to the Board of the corporate consulting, accounting and legal services provider, Afianza, as a Non-Executive Director, to advise the firm on implementing technology to accelerate its growth. Polo brings 15 years’ experience in driving high-performance teams to Afianza’s Board, following his integral role in the set-up and launch of GuideSmiths’ Madrid office after heading up large-scale migrations, continuous integration/deployment platforms and microservices builds with the consultancy in the UK.
SEO, PPC and Digital PR agency Distinctly has announced two new team hires, further expanding its SEO offering for clients. Rachel McHugh joined Distinctly as a Junior SEO Executive in January after graduating from Durham University where she studied Modern Languages and Cultures, with a focus on French, Spanish and Catalan. After completing her degree, she discovered an interest in the digital marketing and SEO world and looked to embark on a career in this industry. Rob Hodginsalso joined Distinctly as a Junior SEO Executive in February after graduating from the International Business School in Barcelona with a distinction in Digital Marketing. He also has an undergraduate degree in History and International Relations from The University of Exeter.
Patient medication review platform, DrugStars, which rewards patients taking their medication with charitable donations, has announced the hiring of a new Head of Growth. Appointed to the role is Frederic Linfjärd, who will be responsible for using his extensive experience to drive B2B and B2C growth and improve customer experiences across the DrugStars ecosystem. He joins from Danish software editing company, Capture One, where he grew subscriptions and revenue before its acquisition by AXCEL. Prior to this, he also worked as the Nordic digital marketing manager for SKF Group.
Global socially-led creative agency We Are Social has bolstered its creative and production offerings in the UK with a number of senior hires and promotions. Jo Lumbhas been promoted to head of We Are Social Studios, the agency’s standalone production division. Previously executive producer, Lumb will now focus on leading the division through the oversight of all production output, as well as continued business growth and development.
Danielle Melia joins the agency as creative director, focused on LEGO, Kelloggs and Pringles. A through-the-line creative that previously held a senior creative role at Leo Burnett, Melia has worked with a number of leading agencies including AnalogFolk and OgilvyOne. We Are Social has also hired Angharad Salazar Llewellyn as editorial director across its Lidl and Forevermark accounts. She has previously held senior content roles for FMCG, retail and luxury brands, and recently worked on content strategies for Unilever, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Swarovski.
We Are Social has also made a series of senior promotions in its creative department. Sarah Hecks has moved to interim head of editorial (maternity cover), responsible for a department of 33 writers, community managers, editors, and directors, working across all the agency’s clients. Kenneth Moore has been promoted to creative director, overseeing creative output for a number of the agency’s flagship clients, including Guinness, Dr Martens and adidas. Dan Parker has been promoted to editorial director, leading We Are Social’s sports-focused editorial team of 15 editors and writers, working with brands like adidas, Guinness and PlayStation.
Uberall has appointed of Kimia Meshkinyar as its new Vice President Global Product & Revenue Marketing. Meshkinyar brings over thirteen years of international marketing experience in product marketing, market analysis, segmentation, and developing go-to-market strategies for technology solutions and services to the role. Prior to joining Uberall, she most recently served as Vice President Global Product Marketing for the strategic content platform Acrolinx. She has also worked for market research company Evalueserve, as well as the world’s largest scientific publications publisher, Elsevier.
Richard Clay has been promoted to Head of Specialist Capabilities. Clay has worked at Zenith for 11 years, originally joining in 2010 as a graduate planner. In his new role, Clay will report directly into Chief Strategy Officer, Richard Kirk, and will oversee a team of six Specialist Directors. The team have a deep expertise on particular subjects, including: effectiveness, data-driven marketing, direct response, performance solutions, ecommerce and media innovation.
Avantgarde London has announced the hire of Victoria Larder, as the agency’s new Client Services Director. In her new role, Larder will be leading the client services team, managing relationships across all Avantgarde’s accounts. Larder comes from PAVE London, where she was MD, a role she held since 2014. She has also previously worked for the likes of Brandfluent and EMAP. Larder’s industry experience includes notable accounts such as PrettyLittleThing.com, boohoo, Fortnum & Mason, Domestic & General and giffgaff. Prior to this, Larder spent time as a radio presenter on commercial radio stations across the UK.
Christopher Hurst has joined Kaspersky as General Manager of UK and Ireland. A seasoned veteran of the software industry, Hurst will use his 34 years’ experience in the trade to drive continued enterprise and channel growth in the region. An experienced leader, Hurst joined Veritas/Symantec in 2006 via an acquisition where, over 12 years, he ran several incubation businesses including the xSP business. Hurst also had responsibility for the EMEA Security Practice, driving emerging products with a team of specialists. More recently, he built the EMEA operation of Cloudistics, a private cloud platform backed by Bain Capital Ventures.
Market research and online consumer intelligence veteran Richard Thornton has been appointed to the board of fast-growing Manchester-based consumer insights business Vypr. Thornton further strengthens the Vypr board, having worked with customers and partners for over 20 years in consultancy and commercial roles within the data and insights industry at high growth, fast scale SaaS technology businesses. He has spent the last 12 years working for Cint, the global software leader in digital insights gathering, latterly as Chief Commercial Officer, and is now a Senior Adviser to the company. Prior to that, Thornton was Managing Director of Ciao Surveys, the European arm of Greenfield Online, and one of the early pioneers of online consumer research panels.
Deloitte has appointed Annie Gallimore as managing director of the firm’s creative consultancy, ACNE London. Gallimore joins the firm from ENGINE, where she held the position of managing director, overseeing 200 people within the agency’s creative pillar. Gallimore brings more than 20 years’ experience to Deloitte Digital, having worked both client and agency side of the industry leading multi-award winning integrated campaigns for multiple organisations, including large international brands and public sector bodies. Prior to her role as managing director at ENGINE, Gallimore held leadership positions at Grey London as managing partner and Waterstones as head of marketing. Gallimore sits on the IPA Council, which she was elected to in 2019. Having run the women’s network at ENGINE, Gallimore also acts as a mentor to women across the industry.
Beckley Psytech, a private company dedicated to addressing neurological and psychiatric disorders through psychedelic medicine, has appointed Andy Page as its Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect. Page brings over 25 years’ experience working within global pharmaceutical and medtech organisations in strategic and operation roles at SmithKline Beecham, Johnson & Johnson and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe. Page also directed the go-to-market strategy for the Medical Devices & Diagnostics global surgery division across 105 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
