Independent out-of-home (OOH) agency Billups has announced significant additions to its global leadership team, including the appointment of Ranganathan Somanathan as Chief Global Growth Officer, a newly created position. The expanded leadership team includes the elevation of Jaime Byrdak to CEO, North America, Dave Williams to Global Head of Commercial & Investment, and Tony Stoering to Global Head of Client Development. As well, Ben Milne was recently appointed as CEO, APAC. The team will focus on aligning strategic planning processes to encompass billups’ patented IP and OOH impact measurement. Somanathan is based in Singapore, Byrdak in Chicago, Williams in London, and Stoering in Minneapolis.
Brand consultancy Interbrand has appointed Fura Jóhannesdóttir as Global Chief Creative Officer. Fura will lead Interbrand’s global creative community at a moment of critical and significant growth for the agency, overseeing design, experience and digital divisions across The Americas, EMEA and Asia. She will report to Interbrand’s Global CEO, Gonzalo Brujó and takes a position on Interbrand’s Global Executive Leadership Team. Jóhannesdóttir brings extensive experience of leading creativity across global markets, having built world-class teams in New York, Stockholm, and London, across EMEA, APAC and MENA. Prior to this appointment, Fura was Global Chief Creative Officer at Huge where she led the global rebrand of the agency – and spent more than a decade directing creative in markets around the world for R/GA. Fura also served as a Trustee to D&AD for 4 years.
RTL Group’s international media sales house RTL AdAlliance has made significant updates to its leadership and organisational sales structure.Following the departure of Simone Blei, Artur Kobryn has been appointed as Vice President International Sales with immediate effect. He will lead the company’s international sales strategy and oversee – together with Nicole Haman, Vice President Global Digital Sales – global sales operations. Stefanie Meierfrankenfeld will assume the role of BU Director DACH. She will be responsible for international sales across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Nicole Haman will take over the management of the UK BU on an interim base in addition to her current role as Vice President Global Digital Sales.
Max Alexander has been appointed CEO of the inaugural South by Southwest® (SXSW®) London festival which will take place in London, Shoreditch 2nd – 7th June. He will be responsible for business and brand strategy, operational excellence and a key area of responsibility will be to grow the European edition of the festival. Alexander joins the team with over 25 years’ experience leading organisations in the technology, media, and telecommunications sector, spanning startups to multi-billion-pound public companies. Over the past decade, Alexander has focused on live entertainment, serving as Managing Director of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Really Useful Group’ and most recently as CEO of Secret Cinema.
monday.com has appointed Robbie Ferrara as Global Creative Director. Ferrara will lead the creation of monday.com’s first-ever, London-based creative taskforce, driving a global brand strategy and cementing the company’s position as a creative force in the tech industry. With over 20 years of experience, Ferrara has built a reputation as a creative leader delivering standout campaigns including work for the Premier League, UEFA Champions League and Amazon, where he played a key role in high-profile projects like Clarkson’s Farm and Road to a Million.
Local commerce platform Wolt has appointed Christian Urban as global head of grocery. A digital commerce specialist, he will lead strategy and operations for the company’s grocery partnership business, overseeing its development and expansion across Wolt’s 28 markets. His responsibilities include broadening the product offering available to consumers, managing merchant partnerships and ensuring a “world-class customer experience”. In his previous role as director of marketplace for the Asia-Pacific region at foodpanda, Urban grew retail delivery to a multi-million-dollar business across 11 countries, forming strategic partnerships with leading brands such as Carrefour, Watsons, DFI and 7-Eleven. Before that, as managing director for Honestbee Singapore, he launched the region’s first dark store grocery concept.
Leading creative agency for the music industry Firmative, whose extensive client roster includes major record labels such as Atlantic Records, Warner Music, Universal, Sony, BMG, and EMI as well as global brands like Netflix and Samsung, has appointed Simon Dent, founder of sports-focused creative agency Dark Horses and former BBH Sport business director, as Chairman. Dent, who brings more than 20 years of experience in launching and growing some of the creative industry’s most successful agencies, will spearhead the strategic direction and global growth of the agency, which was founded by entrepreneur Dumi Siwo in 2017. He will also assist Firmative as it settles into its new office space in King’s Cross’ Tileyard music hub, in London, ahead of an exciting year for the agency as it focuses on expansion.
ITN and ITV are delighted to announce the appointment of Laura Wilshaw as the new Editor of ITV News. In this role, Laura will oversee all of ITV’s acclaimed national news programmes and digital output, as well as ITV News London, ITN-produced current affairs shows including Tonight, live specials and documentaries. Laura brings a wealth of experience, having served as Deputy Editor of Channel 4 News since August 2022. Before Channel 4 News, Laura held prominent positions at ITV News, including as Senior Programme Editor for the award-winning News at Ten and senior roles at Euronews, Sky News, and Channel 5 News.
Impact Plus, provider of solutions to evaluate and reduce the environmental impact of online ads, has appointed sustainability consultant Christina Wu as its new International Customer Success Manager. Wu, who has worked in the ad industry for almost a decade at various companies, including PHD, OMD, and Saatchi & Saatchi, will be responsible for helping clients reduce the carbon footprint of their digital campaigns using Impact Plus’s carbon evaluation technology. She will be based at the company’s headquarters in Paris and will report directly to Agathe Viaud, Impact Plus’s Global Head of Customer Success.
Brand, marketing and communications specialist Definition has strengthened its board with the appointment of a new Chair and a series of key promotions. Martin Boddy, Jaywing founder and experienced portfolio NED, joins the board as Chair. With considerable experience in M&A, Boddy brings a strong track record of agency growth and transformation over the last twenty years, particularly in harnessing data to improve commercial performance. Definition also has made several internal promotions to bolster its board and better reflect its specialisms. Katy Bloomfield and Jennie Gerry join the board as Managing Partners of PR and Brand respectively. Gerry will focus on client services and growth in the business’ new integrated Brand practice, working alongside fellow Managing Partner Neil Taylor Neil Taylor, who now leads the business’ creative team. As part of the changes, Definition’s Finance Director Rachel Griffin and Co-founder and Chief Client Officer Loiuse Vaughan have been promoted to Co-CEOs.
