Performance marketing people: eBay Ads gets new GM and Innocent’s social media manager moves on

eBay Ads has announced the appointment of Upasana Gupta as its new General Manager of Advertising in the UK. Heading up the eBay Ads UK team based in Richmond, London, Gupta will focus on driving adoption of advertising solutions. She joins eBay Ads after 16 years at Microsoft Advertising, where she was most recently EMEA Marketing Lead.  

John Thornton, former social media manager and copywriter at Innocent, and notable guest on PMW’s Attention Seekers podcast has joined healthy cereal start-up Surreal, as Senior Creative. Thornton was at Innocent for four years.

Noelle Runo has joined international technology and digital marketing consultancy Making Science as Marketing Manager for the Northern Region, Europe. In the newly created role, Runo takes up the newly created role from a marketing management role at Partmeiron Group. She has previously served as CRM Manager at The Hut Group. 

The world’s largest performance marketing network, Reprise has appointed Jessica Chapplow as its Managing Partner, Head of Commerce. Chapplow joins from Havas, where she led its commerce agency Havas Market, advising clients on retail strategies and consulting on implementing best practice for omnichannel innovation. In her new role, Chapplow will lead Reprise Commerce across the UK and Ireland, working with specialist teams to expand its capabilities and consult clients on digital commerce transformation.

Dilpreta Vasudeva has been appointed as Marketing Lead for Business Messaging (WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger) at Meta. Vasudeva is the founder of CMO Access – a CMO-as-a-service provider, and was previously Head of Marketing Transformation (Financial Service) at Bharti Enterprises. Prior to that, Vasudeva held marketing leadership roles at Reliance Industries and Tata Play.

Privacy-first ad targeting solutions Nano Interactive has hired Matthew Beck as VP, Partnerships. Beck will head up the company’s global efforts to expand on its supply side platform, demand side platforms and publisher partnerships. He will be responsible for creating strategic partnerships, as well as managing Nano’s current relationship with Xandr, the advertising and analytics subsidiary of Microsoft. Beck joins from Prohaska, a boutique digital transformation consultancy, and was also Business Development Director at global digital marketing technology company Amobee.

In-game ad solution provider Anzu has named former AdColony SVP APAC Tom Simpson as its new strategic advisor for the APAC region. Simpson also serves on the Mobile Marketing Association board in APAC. 

Gonzalo Brujó has been promoted to Global Chief Executive Officer at Interbrand. Brujó, who was previously Global President, succeeds Charles Trevail, who will take on the role of Executive Chairman. He will be responsible for Interbrand’s overall global direction, strategy and growth.

Independent podcast company Acast has promoted Josh Woodhouse as Regional Managing Director of its UK and Ireland business. Woodhouse has been acting Regional Managing Director prior to taking on the role full time. Prior to his five year tenure at Acast, Woodhouse started his career at Bauer Media Group. Leo Goldingham has also been named Director of Sales for the UK, stepping up from Group Business Director. 

Hearts & Science has appointed Rachel Peace as Managing Director. Peace will be working with a diverse brand mix, including Peloton, Ocado, GoCompare and Virgin Voyages. She has more than 20 years’ experience of working in media agencies and joins Hearts & Science from MediaCom, where she was managing partner, as well as head of UK media for The Pharm, WPP’s dedicated consulting agency for the Walgreens Boots Alliance. Peace has also held roles as Group Client Director at Carat, and started her career at Walker Media (nowBlue 449/Spark Foundry).

Yevgeny Peres has joined AppsFlyer’s leadership team as Executive Vice President of Product Strategy. Peres previously held executive roles at ironSource and Supersonic, where he was initially tasked to kickstart and grow its mobile activity and in recent years led its mobile product strategy and innovation lab. 

PMW’s APAC Awards Performance Marketing Agency of the Year winner Tug has now opened its Singapore office, with Karen Soo as Managing Director for the agency’s South East Asia operations. Soo was previously Head of Reprise at Reprise Digital.

Meanwhile in the UK Tug has appointed Daniel Capon as Head of Biddable Media. Capon joins from Starcom and will oversee Tug’s paid media team in London to deliver data-led, highly trackable campaigns for  blue-chip brands including Milk & More, Zipcar, and LEAP. 

Global marketing services group The Miroma Group has made two senior appointments for new roles. Matt Highfield joins as Business Director and will be responsible for supporting and building out The Miroma Group’s client offering within its core industry verticals. Highfield was previously  Director of Account Management & New Business at Dewynters. Velvett Stratford-Wright becomes Partnership Director, to spearhead client partnerships for The Miroma Group’s sports and entertainment offer. Stratford-Wright has worked on partnerships including Unilever’s Rexona global portfolio which included Chelsea F.C., Manchester City F.C., La Liga and CONMEBOL and Three UK’s front of shirt partnership with Chelsea F.C.

Machine learning solution provider Moloco has welcomed Sunil Rayan as its first Chief Business Officer. Rayan brings more than 25 years’ experience building commercial and product operations, and scaling up large technology-driven businesses. He was previously President and Head of Disney+ Hotstar, growing its streaming business eight times over to reach more than 50 million subscribers. Prior to this Rayan held leadership roles at Google, leading the Global Mobile App ads business and helping build Google Cloud Solutions for games.

Gig economy platform Gigable has appointed Janet Brennan-Gray as its Chief Revenue Officer to drive the platform’s growth and expansion across the UK and Ireland. The former Head of Sales and Head of Brand for daily deals sites Wowcher and LivingSocial will lead Gigable’s sales, revenue and performance strategy.

New York sightseeing company Top View has hired Cat Jennings as its new global PR and Social Director. Jennings joins after two decades of leading international communication and marketing strategies for brands including Hilton, Booking.com, Procter & Gamble, Philips, BRITA and Bosch. She will oversee Top View communication and social strategies to create multi-channel programs in media relations, influencer engagement and social media development.

Venu Juvvala has been appointed as a Senior Director by Adobe to lead its digital experience. Juvvala was previously Regional Vice President - Enterprise at Salesforce.