Movers and Shakers, a round-up of new appointments at Wiggles, Beep, Pride in London, Adam&EveDDB and more

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by Jacob Solomon Mar 7, 2023 News
Movers and Shakers, a round-up of new appointments at Wiggles, Beep, Pride in London, Adam&EveDDB and more

The people are just as affected by the mobile and digital marketing industry as are the technologies. Every month, we feature the hottest hires in the industry.

(Clockwise from top left:) Prashant Kohli, Katrina Heineking, Tim Noblett, Tom Moore, Nicole Kivel, Emily Barfuss

Pushkaraj Vartak has been promoted to the role of CFO by the Indian pet care brand, Wiggles.

In his new role as Chief Marketing Officer, he will lead the company's marketing initiatives and drive consumer engagement. He oversaw the change of the name of the company to 'Lovemark' and the creation of its new identity. He has 13 years of experience in brand and customer experience, community building and integrated media communications. He was a member of the leadership team at Glitch. He helps brands solve a variety of business challenges.

The Vice President, Accounts & Finance has been an important part of the financial performance of the company. He will be in charge of the company's financial operations. He has over twenty years of experience in finance. He used to work for Glitch media.

The founder and CEO of Wiggles said that they founded the company with love. The last few years have shown our commitment to animals. We are looking for leaders who are compassionate and result oriented to drive growth for the organization. They are excellent leaders for our brand because of their passion for both animals and people.

Beep made three senior hires, including an Executive Vice President of Operations, a Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts and a Vice President of Public Policy.

Heineking has been in the transit industry for more than 30 years and has worked in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Beep, she was the head of Transdev North America, the largest private provider of multiple modes of transit in the world.

Klein has been delivering cutting-edge mobility and technology solutions for more than 20 years. Klein co-founded The Vehicle Production Group, which manufactured the first factory-direct wheelchair accessible vehicle.

Poirot has 13 years of experience in the policy of mobility. He was most recently Corporate Affairs Director for Keolis North America, a global public transportation operator. Poirot worked as a senior policy advisor to a senior member of the House of Representatives in the development, enactment and implementation of legislation, including the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and the FAA Reauthorization Act.

Joe Moye is the Chief Executive Officer for Beep. As we continue to experience unprecedented growth within our industry, these seasoned leaders will help us scale our operations, build close strategic relationships with our largest customers, and ensure we continue to work closely with state and federal government agencies.

Tim Noblett is the new Director of Marketing for Pride in London Pride in London. He took over the position from Asad Shaykh.

The marketing activity for Pride in London will be managed by Noblett. The main campaign for the event takes place on 1 July and includes campaigns to support Pride's Got Talent. Gaydio and The Independent will be working with Noblett.

Over 1.5 million people attended last year's Pride in London Parade, making it the biggest and most inclusive event in history. The successful #AllOurPride campaign highlighted the links between the last five decades of activism with the contemporary achievements and struggles of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer community.

Noblett is excited to join the board of Pride in London and support their work. The role of Pride has become more important as we see more attacks on the community.

Adam&EveDDB has named two people as joint heads of Integrated Production. The production department will be led by the pair.

There will be a permanent role forPritchett at the agency. John Lewis & Partners, Marks & Spencer and Virgin Atlantic are just a few of the brands she has worked for. Prior to working with Adam&EveDDB, she was the head of production at Nineteen Twenty. She has been in charge of the production for the John Lewis Christmas campaigns for the last three years.

He has been at Adam&EveDDB for over five years. She was the deputy head of television at Publicis. She has been leading production on global, integrated campaigns for over 30 years. She led production on an epic 3-minute rom-com ad for The National Lottery, which was the number-one Film Ad of the year.

“Ben has been a key player in our success over the past five years,” said Adam&EveDDB Chief Creative Officer, Richard Brim. “I can’t thank him enough for the talent and dedication he’s brought to everything he’s touched during that time but I understand the lure of family beckons and wish him all the best for his next chapter. The thought of Sally and Nikki leading our immensely talented production department fills me with utter joy. There is literally no one better in the business to take us forward.”  VMLY&R promotes Tom Moore to UK Head of Commerce
VMLY&R has promoted Tom Moore to the newly-created position of Head of Commerce UK. He was formerly Head of Retail. The new role is the UK agency’s next step in its connected brands agenda –helping clients accelerate growth through brand experience and customer experience with commerce at the heart.

Moore is working to connect creativity, strategy and digital to help brands open up new growth opportunities. Marco Bezerra joined the agency in August of last year.

Moore joined the agency as head of shopping. In the last few years, he has led commerce transformation initiatives for brands including Evergreen, Viagra and Lycra, and award-winning activations. Tom has brought drive, ambition and talent to deliver growth for our clients and the agency. He brings experience across sectors and channels to help brands rethink themselves in the context of commerce. Tom and Marco promise to accelerate growth for our clients.

Rich Kirk has been appointed as J oint Chief Strategy Officer at the agency. The agency's leadership team will be strengthened and delivered against its ambitious growth plans with the help of him.

Kirk brings with him a lot of experience in new business, strategy and the digital space. He is a thought leader in the field of media planning and brings a variety of skills to the table. He will play an important role in new business development. He will join the agency in May.

The recent formation of the UK's largest regional network follows this appointment. Performance, data, analytics, and creative technology are combined with scaled audience planning and strategic media expertise to find new opportunities for brands and deliver breakthrough media solutions.

Kirk believes that media planning has never been more valuable to advertisers than it is now. Being able to practice that craft at the biggest media agency in the UK is very exciting.

An attitude and ambition that matches my own is what agencies need to embrace change and adapt quickly in a media landscape that is moving so fast. The bar for what advertisers can expect from a media agency and the growth that media can drive for their businesses is going to be raised. Being at the forefront of change is a privilege.

Elvis has hired a raft of new senior creative talent from Grey and Ogilvy following a record year for new business in which it won every single pitch it took part in.

A multi award-winning Creative Director, Alexandru Vasile joined Elvis from Grey, where he worked on brands in the Coca Cola portfolio and on the global Tuborg account. He has 11 years of experience in the advertising industry and held positions at two agencies. He has received many awards over the course of his career.

He will lead the creative department and work to further build the quality of the agency's output with a focus on delivering award-winning and industry- defining creative work.

Susie and Adam joined the agency as senior creatives. They worked for the global Dove and Hellman's accounts at the time.

The Leith Agency worked on Irn-Bru, German Doner Kebab and the Scottish Government, while Ablo was at VCCP. They are tasked with creating game-changing, unexpected and unforgettable work for the clients.

Elvis Executive Creative Director, Neale Horri said, "As Elvis continues to grow, we are now focusing on hiring the industry's best senior creative talent in order to ensure we're delivering industry-defining, award-worthy creativity for our clients."

The Executive Managing Director, Europe, and Managing Director, Northern Europe have been appointed by the company. They will work together to better serve the needs of enterprise marketers and growth marketing businesses.

He has more than 20 years of retail and consumer packaged goods experience, having most recently served as Chief Client Officer at the customer data science company, where he was responsible for the company's global commercial and client operations. He was the General Manager of France and Poland at Diageo, a global leader in premium drinks. Fischli is responsible for driving revenue across the company's enterprise and growth clients for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

After working on the activation side of the business in Northern Europe, Kivel left in 2021 to join BazaarVoice, where she worked with some of the largest retailers in Europe. The retail media space was evangelised by Kivel, who launched Hook Logic UK. She has helped to advise the world's leading brands and agencies as they strengthen and expand their retail media strategies.

Kivel oversees the commercial organisation for large enterprise clients across the key northern European region. Her initial focus will be to bring the suite of products together to maximize digital strategy and monetisation programs.

She said it was exciting to have the chance to play a part in the story. My passion and experience has always been helping retailers realise the value of their customer data and maximize their tech stack. With its expertise in both retail media and performance marketing, Criteo is able to help retailers do this. The Commerce Media Platform has the potential to change what marketers, media owners and consumers think about advertising.

As Chief Client Officer, she will be in charge of all existing clients in the UK. She has led the UK client services team for Data and Martech for the past six years and will now be responsible for ensuring Merkle deliver service excellence across Experience and Commerce, Analytics, B2B, and consulting.

The new Chief Growth Officer is Mark Jones. Jones will be focusing on the opportunities from Dentsu integration in his new position. Jones has spent the last seven years at Merkle, leading senior client stakeholder relationships and P&Ls across large regional and global brands, consistently ensuring Merkle solutions and professional services have been focused on delivering client business value based outcomes

The Chief Solutions Officer is responsible for solution design and implementation. Derbyshirs has been involved in winning and delivering several complex integrated solutions. Larger multi-year deals and building retained revenues will be supported by him.

Anne Stagg said that she was delighted to promote such fantastic existing talent to support their clients. "As we embark on our journey to further integrate Merkle as part of the wider Dentsu business, we need people who can form matrix teams across Creative, CXM and Media, bringing together one client team regardless of where they sit within the Dentsu family"

The global chief strategy officer at Croud has been hired by Kaushik. Kaushik built a strategic consulting practice for the company's largest customers after 16 years at the company. Also, he was.

Part of the team that worked on the project. He was the leader of Global Strategic Analytics for one of the largest global advertisers, covering brand, performance, and influencer marketing.

His role will encompass strategy, product, and data, as well as mergers and acquisitions, and will allow him to influence the company on a global scale.

He wants to help one of the world's best performance marketing agencies become a leading full-service marketing partner. Croud has focused on disruptive innovation as applied to process, tools and business models since it was founded. The opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our global teams to deliver a step change in Croud's impact while leading the charge for the entire industry is thrilling.

Kaushik has sought to simplify the complexity which often defines the industry, ensuring that marketing initiatives can deliver at scale. His role as a marketing evangelist on a mission to make data more accessible has been furthered by his reputation as someone who consistently pushes the boundaries of what's possible.

Over the years, Kaushik has donated more than $1 million to charities supporting civil rights, refugees, and early childhood education in the US and abroad.

According to Croud's founder and CEO, Avinash is a visionary in marketing. We have absolute conviction and ambition for what we can achieve for our clients, even though many are uncertain. Croud's capabilities of course, but most importantly, helping our clients achieve their goals over the next few years, is what Avinash has already shown how he will bolster that. On the heels of significant revenue growth, LoopMe has hired two new employees. Lisa Coffery and Andy Sophocli joined the firm as revenue officers. The company closed out the year with $150 million in revenue, a 55 percent increase over the previous year.

At Amazon, where she most recently held the position of Head of Strategy and Business Development, she spearheaded sales and account organisation, established multi-year operating plans, and developed and implemented revenue-generating strategies. Reporting to the CEO, Coffey will be in charge of revenue in North America, with direct reports over mid-market, agency partnerships and regional-based holding company business. She has worked with agencies to drive innovation in the media and tech space.

Sophocli has over 20 years of experience. Prior to working at Azerion, he worked at Time Inc. UK and Collective Europe. Sophocli will focus on relationships with new agency groups and independents in his new position.

We are excited to have Lisa join our executive leadership team. Stephen Upstone, CEO and co- founder of LoopMe, said that her vast experience will support them as they carve out a sizable share in the global digital advertising market. We are very happy to have Andy on board as we continue to deliver outstanding customer service to our clients. We are very grateful to be able to keep hiring and growing in the areas we are passionate about, including empowering brands to leverage new opportunities within in-app environments as our digital and physical worlds proceed to merger.

Anna-Marie Whiteside has been appointed as the Regional Sales Director for the North of England and Scotland. Alberico De Nardis joins the team as Head of South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, while Bernard Fung joins the team as Head of North Asia. Stephen Windegaard has been appointed to head up Programmatic sales at Ozone. Ozone will be working with the programmatic operations and trading desks of UK agencies.

He has a lot of experience in programmatic publishing. He held the position of Commercial Group Head - Programmatic for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Future for over five years. He worked for a decade at Haymarket Media, where he worked on titles such as Four FourTwo, Stuff, What Hi-fi?, and Autocar.

Windegaard will champion the sell of Ozone's growing programmatic offering across deals and marketplace connections that complement Ozone's managed service capability.

Ozone Chief Revenue Officer, Craig Tuck, said they were excited to have Stephen on board. Our ability to allow our clients to engage with us in whichever way works best for them is reinforced by this exciting and growing area. Stephen is going to be a huge asset to the commercial team.

Ed East, Global CEO and co- founder of Billion Dollar Boy, has moved from the agency's UK headquarters to New York. Developing the agency's operational structures and ways of working, as well as its marketing and client relationships, will be supported by East and Permele. Technology, gaming, and food and drink are some of the sectors that East has expertise in.

Alex is the new Global Creative Director. He will be responsible for leading the agency's creative output and innovation in both European and US markets.

He has 12 years of experience in the creative industry, including senior roles at The Audience and Ogilvy. Since he was hired as Billion Dollar Boy's Creative Director in August of 2021, he has doubled the size of the creative department, with diversity at its core. He oversaw the launch of innovative creator-led campaigns, including 'The Candy Cave' by Candy Crush, and a re-interpretation of Martini's classic posters.

Billion Dollar Boy was able to generate 40 million dollars in revenue last year, thanks to the leadership changes, which will help the agency to grow even more in the future.

Billion Dollar Boy will aim to double the size of its US operations over the course of the next decade, including increasing its physical presence in New Orleans and New York.

New York is the mecca for both exceptional and diverse creator talent and brands who are willing to try bigger and bolder influencer campaigns than ever before. I look forward to growing Billion Dollar Boy's operations in the US and keeping it at the forefront of innovation and creativity.

Emily Barfuss is the new Chief Marketing Officer at the firm. Barfuss has built brands of $300 million in revenue in both public and private. She began her career at CBS Corporation. She became the Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications and oversaw the redesign of the index exchange brand. She led the development and execution of the company's global marketing strategy.

She will oversee and centralise the global brand, field, product marketing, and communications teams. She will be a member of the executive committee.

Barfuss is excited to join the leadership team and help execute the company's unique vision for the future of the advertising industry. As our industry transitions to a cookieless and IDless environment, personified advertising will be crucial. I am proud to be a part of the collaborative and transparent culture fostered by the values of the company. The carbon intelligence platform, Cedara, has made a new hire. The company is growing and will be led by Shih. With over 20 years of experience in media, advertising and technology, Shih is a proven leader who has scaled businesses globally at startup and large corporations. As Lasso's Chief Growth Officer, he launched its publisher enterprise software business and was responsible for the growth of its healthcare sales initiatives. He was the Chief Supply Officer at Teads from 2014 to 2021. Senior positions at a number of media companies have been held by him.

Digital experience platform (DXP) provider, Optimizely, has named digital marketing veterans Shafqat Islam and Sebastiaan de Jong as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Sales Officer, respectively.  Islam’s dedication to optimising the marketing experience dates back to his time as Co-founder and CEO of enterprise content marketing firm Welcome (formerly known as NewsCred), from 2007 to 2021. He joined the Optimizely team as General Manager when Optimizely acquired Welcome in 2021.De Jong previously served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the EMEA and APAC regions and specializes in scaling, growth strategy, and experimentation. He joined Optimizely in 2018 to grow the EMEA region. After Optimizely was acquired by Episerver in 2020, de Jong built a strong team and drove consistent growth, going on to take on the expanded responsibility of the SE Asia and ANZ regions. 

Say It Now has a new sales director. She brings a lot of knowledge and experience to Say It Now.

She joins Say It Now from A Million Ads, where she led global audio campaigns and long-term strategic planning for international agencies including Publicis Group, IPG and Omnicom. She will play an integral role in driving Say It Now’s growth as the company expands into Actionable TV Ads – on-screen ads that encourage the viewer to engage with their voice assistant after viewing a TV ad to complete a brand’s advertising campaign goal.

Scott Patton has been appointed to the position of Executive Director, Operations in the UK. Valtech has grown its UK client base by 48 per cent in the last year, working with household brands and organizations such as easy Jet, Dominos Pizza, National Trust, and Department of Transport. In the London office, Patton will work with Valtech's executive team to define and execute its operational and delivery strategies that will enable the agency to accelerate innovative andtransformational experiences with its UK clients and partners. He was the head of transformation, delivery and operations at Cognizant. He directed transformation across delivery and operations at both a regional and global level in the past.

Emmi Kuusikko has been appointed head of product strategy, insights and growth at GameHouse. With more than two decades of experience in global product management and marketing, business development and executive board roles, Kuusikko joined GameHouse. The local GameHouse presence in this mobile gaming stronghold will be provided by Kuusikko. She created and led teams to drive acquisition, engagement, retention and monetization in her previous roles.

Sarah Baumann has been named Managing Director of The Wild. The Wild sold a majority stake to a private equity firm in late 2021. An impressive record for delivering phenomenal business results is what she brings to The Wild. Her clients included TikTok, Durex, WeWork and the Natwest Group, as well as her previous employer, VaynerMedia. She held the role of deputy CEO at the time. They were at the wild. She will be in charge of the evolution of the organisation from a new-entrant agency to the agency of choice as it begins partnerships with brands such as Major League Baseball. The Wild is going to build a new suite of products in order to better serve its clients.

Udi Ziv has been appointed as the CEO of Kissterra. The appointment of Ziv gave Kissterra the ability to expand into new markets. Ziv was the CEO of Earnix, a real-time, artificial intelligence-driven enterprise pricing and rating engine for insurance and banking. A seamless end-to-end solution for insurance companies is provided by the Kissterra marketing operating system.

Charlotte Twining has been appointed Managing Director of The 5th Wall. She has more than 15 years of experience in the industry and most recently was the Marketing Director for Moulin Rouge!. Ben Campbell is the Managing Director of Farlo, a data driven web design and web development company. He has 15 years of experience designing and building websites.

Vince Amalfi has been hired by Mirriad. Amalfi has decades of sales experience across television, music, cinema, and digital media, structuring partnerships with many of the world's largest brands. Mirriad's in-content advertising offering will be driven by him. He was the Vice President of National Sales at Intersection Co. Amalfi was the VP of national advertising sales at Screenvision Media. He was the sales leader at Music Choice, a multi-platform video and music network.

GrowthOps Asia has a new Regional Head. The Regional Creative Director and the Talent Acquisition Head have already been appointed. GrowthOps Asia's regional clients include companies from financial services, automotive, airline and consumer He has 14 years of multi market experience in Japan, India, and Singapore. He held leadership positions at GroupM India and Mirum Agency in Singapore.

Tal Shaked has been appointed as the first Chief Machine Learning Fellow. Moloco CEO Ikkjin Ahn and Shaked worked together before. Ahn and Shaked were both at the same place in the same year. While working on a ranking problem at YouTube, Ahn's small team was the first to successfully and profitably apply a machine learning platform. The path to becoming the most widely deployed machine learning system at the company was put in place by this. Shaked went on to build teams that focused on applied research, integrated ML capabilities across hundreds of product applications, and the development of some of the most popular machine learning platforms. Shaked was the leader of teams that focused on maximizing advertiser value through targeting, bidding, and automation. Laura has been hired by Adludio as head of sales. She will be responsible for the expansion of UK sales and revenue as well as the development of new partnerships and business opportunities.

With over a decade of experience in digital media,Holmes is an expert in leading teams in the delivery of outstanding success for clients, and has worked for leading media groups such as Time Out. She joined Adludio from Reach, where she was Group Head.

The business development manager has been hired by the sonic branding agency. He will focus on inspiring new client partnerships for brands looking to develop their identities in sound and will be responsible for driving business growth across new and existing sectors.