Outra, the UK’s leading provider of household-level data for insight and marketing activation, today announced the appointment of Fred Jones as its new Chief Executive Officer. Jones will take on the role alongside his current position as CEO of sister brand Upstix, bringing extensive leadership experience to the business. As CEO, Jones will oversee Outra’s strategic direction and work closely with the senior leadership team, which includes Graham Field, Leo Xiong, Ryan Sheils, Jack Edwards, David Whiteley and Oli Bello. Jones brings a proven track record of scaling technology and data-driven businesses. His dual role at Outra and Upstix reflects the companies’ commitment to integrating insights and innovation across both brands.
Immediate has appointed Jon Restall in as Director of Trading & Clients. In the newly created role, Jon will have responsibility for Immediate’s Entertainment and Food & Wellness clients and strategy, in addition to overseeing Immediate’s agency trading agreements. Jon joins Immediate’s Advertising Leadership Team, reporting into Cath Waller, Immediate’s Managing Director of Advertising, working closely with Immediate’s agency and partnership sales teams and Immediate’s brand publishers.
With over twenty years of senior-level commercial experience, including roles at Time Inc UK and TI Media, Jon joins Immediate from Future where he was Head of Commercial for their Lifestyle and Entertainment, Current Affairs, Finance and Wine verticals.
Grey today announced the appointment of Jai Kotecha as Chief Executive Officer of Grey London. Kotecha will be responsible for accelerating growth and opportunity for Grey London’s clients. He assumes the role on January 15. Kotecha joins Grey London at a pivotal moment. Under the creative stewardship of Chief Creative Officer Helen Rhodes and the strategic leadership of Chief Strategy Officer Tarek Sioufi, the agency has built strong new business momentum, expanded its relationship with Haleon as part of a WPP team, and delivered its best performance in nearly a decade at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Global brand storytelling agency, INVNT, announced the appointment of James Nicholas Kinney as its first Global Chief AI Officer, a role designed to bring new AI-powered solutions directly to clients while expanding the agency’s AI ecosystem and strengthening its data, insights, and tooling infrastructure. Kinney brings a professional profile defined by AI certifications from MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Wharton – the program led by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
OpenAI has appointed Julia Hoffmann and Andrew McKechnie as senior creative leaders in newly created roles supporting its enterprise, developer and international teams. Hoffmann joins as Head of International Creative, overseeing international brand expression and creative execution across campaigns, experiences, and regional markets as OpenAI expands its global footprint. McKechnie joins as Head of Business Creative, leading creative strategy and development across OpenAI’s Developer, Startups, and Enterprise business. These appointments follow the recent hiring of Michael Tabtabai, VP, Global Creative, who is building a global creative organisation to shape how OpenAI communicates its mission, products, and impact and supports its global community of builders and organisations.
