Creative Influencer marketing business The Fifth is restructuring its senior leadership team, following fresh backing from parent company News UK. Oliver Lewis, currently founder and MD, will become CEO and will lead the business across all markets and will be focussed on expansion into the US as well as the evolution of revenue streams within the booming creator economy. Director of Operations and Marketing Jessica Markwood will become COO to deliver the company’s strategic vision and 3 year growth plan, while Sam Coleman, currently Commercial Director, will become The Fifth’s Managing Director EMEA. All three will be supported by an expanded SLT including Katie Wallwork who continues to lead the award winning Fifth Talent business and Creative Director Candice Green.
Deepcrawl, an SaaS platform for Technical SEO analytics and automation, has appointed Varun Athi as its new Chief Financial Officer. Varun brings with him more than 15 years of experience in corporate finance at Fortune 500 as well as startup SaaS companies, having previously led strategic finance roles at Cognizant, Vidyo, Dataminr, Butterfly Network, and, most recently, Aventri. Overseeing Deepcrawl’s finance and accounting functions, Athi will help drive the ongoing data-driven culture at Deepcrawl as the company continues to evolve into a website health analytics platform serving digital operations for businesses worldwide. Panos Savopoulos has also joined as Vice President of Global Sales in support of an expanding international client base subscribing to Deepcrawl’s platform. Previously, Savopoulos was Regional Vice President at Oracle, where he led sales for Oracle’s Loyalty Technology solution, following Oracle’s acquisition of the customer loyalty SaaS platform Crowdtwist where he held the role of VP Sales.
Snowplow, a data creation and behavioral data company,has appointed Christopher Lynch as chairman. Lynch has a proven track record of innovation and market disruption, having previously catalyzed markets around a wide variety of technologies, including web switching, virtualization, security, and most recently Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics. A serial entrepreneur and technology executive, throughout his career Lynch, has raised more than $150M in capital and returned in excess of $7B to investors and shareholders. He co-founded and was a general partner at Accomplice, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies.
PUSH LIVE has appointed Nick Castaneda as Chief Commercial Officer. Castaneda, previously Senior VP of International Sales at The Switch, joins the fast-growing digital audience and live content agency as it looks to drive further expansion into new markets and sectors. Castaneda will oversee the sales and marketing teams and form a key part of PUSH LIVE’s senior leadership team as they propel the business forward. Prior to joining the business, Castaneda oversaw the international sales team at live video production and distribution company The Switch, driving its expansion into APAC and EMEA regions. He has over 15 years of experience within broadcasting and live production, having worked at Pacific Television in close collaboration with broadcast partners FOX Sports Australia, Stats Perform, MTV and Sky UK.
Small business platform Xero has appointed Chris O’Neill to the newly created role of Chief Growth Officer, joining Xero’s global executive leadership team. Reporting to Xero CEO Steve Vamos, Chris will be responsible for the strategic direction and operational performance within Xero’s newly-created Applications & Services division, which represents part of Xero’s small business platform. The Applications & Services division includes Financial Services, Payroll, Planday and the Ecosystem/Xero App Store. Chris will also lead the strategic development of Xero in the Americas – including US and Canada – working closely with Xero President Americas, Tony Ward. Chris joins Xero having served as a senior executive, board member and investor for a number of global technology companies, including Google and Evernote. He also has deep leadership experience in global and North American consumer and enterprise markets. Chris will be based in San Francisco.
Creative agency Waste Creative has appointed James Trimming to the newly created role of Head of Production. Trimming joins Waste on a permanent basis following a stint as a freelance Executive Producer. Prior to this, he was most recently Head of Post-Production for Prodigious Worldwide, based in Singapore. In his new role at Waste, Trimming will oversee the agency’s delivery department of eight people, consisting of both project managers and producers, ensuring that the whole team is working together to deliver quality work on time and on budget. He will also be responsible for defining Waste’s ways of working, ensuring they are effective and efficient; reviewing and refining existing processes; and developing project-specific workflows and pipelines. Trimming will play a key role on clients including Supercell and Riot Games. He will also work on new business and oversee production for Waste’s animation studio, This Thing of Ours. Trimming has more than 12 years’ production experience, including permanent and freelance roles at TAG, Grey London and ENVY Advertising, amongst others.
Marketing automation maverick Act-On has today announced the appointment of Casey Munck to Vice President of Marketing, bolstering the company’s expansion plans. The global appointment supports Act-On’s focus on expanding its sales and marketing functions in order to broaden the reach of its industry leading automation platform. Casey, who joins Act-On from Revinate, has over 15 years leading marketing teams for B2B technology heavyweights including NAVIS, Cendyn and Amadeus. Throughout her career, she has overseen and strategically led marketing teams on the creation and execution of demand generation programs, field marketing, account-based marketing, product marketing, customer engagement, social media, brand and PR.
Workplace equity platform Syndio appointed Ritu Mohanka as Managing Director and Head of its EMEA business. Mohanka’s arrival is part of Syndio’s expanded growth strategy following its $50m Series C funding round in September 2021, and the first time Syndio is specifically targeting the UK and EMEA market. Mohanka joins the company with over 20 years experience in senior leadership roles with HR and talent-focused businesses, including leading business development and strategic growth efforts in EMEA at Glint. Prior to Glint, Mohanka worked at Kenexa/IBM Smarter Workforce to drive rapid revenue growth across the EMEA region. She is the winner of multiple awards and has been recognised on the EMpower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Senior Executive lists on several occasions.
