Performance Marketing People: Former VISA staffer joins UNICEF and Harvey Nichols gets a new e-commerce Director

Annabel Thorburn has joined Harvey Nichols as e-commerce Director following two other recent senior hires aimed at bolstering the department store chain’s leadership team. Thorburn brings 20 years of experience in retail consulting and leisure, at brands including Sweaty Betty and Tesco, overseeing marketing, web development, customer experience, and strategy.

Frederique Covington Corbett has joined the United Nations Children's Fund as Chief of Brand & Marketing. The former Singapore-based CMO and most recently SVP of global brand strategy and planning at Visa, will work within UNICEF’s Private Partnerships Division.

Snapchat has hired former Microsoft Corporate VP and Global Head of Microsoft Advertising, Rob Wilk, as its new President of Americas. The news comes after the social platform lost two key executives to Netflix last year and rounds out the restructuring of Snapchat’s ad team. Wilk is also a former employee of Yahoo and Foursquare.

Performance PR agency Dreamday has hired Lauren Spoto as its first Chief of Staff. Spoto has been a noteworthy leader in the PR and marketing space working across various wellness, lifestyle, food and beverage, and hospitality clients for over a decade.

Advertising industry veteran George Patten has joined tech startup Studiospace, a matchmaking platform connecting independent agencies with major brands. Pattern joins as Global Client Leader and is one of several recent high level appointments for Studiospace, which also recently added TSB CMO Emma Springham and former Direct Line CMO Mark Evans to its growth board. Most recently, Patten spent 12 years in Singapore spending some of that time working at Dentsu as APAC COO. He is also a former Managing Director at Accenture.

Territory Studio, an agency delivering creative advertising for streaming platforms, has hired former Netflix Creative Marketing Executive Nancy Lan as Co-president of Creative Advertising. Lan has extensive cross-sectional expertise developed at Netflix, Disney, Sony and Searchlight.

As reported by our sister publication Campaign, former creative strategist at Meta, Ram Jayaraman, has joined Mullen Lintas as its new Chief Creative Officer. In a career spanning over two decades, he has also worked with Wunderman Thompson and Grey Worldwide.

ViewersLogic, a consumer behaviour data company, has appointed Shahnawaz Ahmed as the company’s dedicated Panel Manager. Prior to ViewersLogic, Ahmed spent half a decade working as a self-employed travel content creator for The Travelogram.

Advertising service FCB Global has hired Ayanna Jackson to the newly created role of SVP, Global Inclusion Strategy. Jackson previously spent seven years with the American Advertising Federation, her latest role being executive vice president, DE&I and education.

Charlotte Wigley has joined search performance agency MediaVision as its new Strategy Director with a remit to help grow its proprietary Metis platform. Wigley brings with her a wealth of experience in strategic planning and management, having previously held senior positions at fashion retailer Hobbs Costa Coffee.

As reported by our sister publication Campaign, advertising company Wunderman Thompson has announced three new appointments across technology and content. After nearly two decades working for Accenture in Digital and Technology Consulting, Hasan Hasnie has joined Wunderman Thompson as Chief Technology Officer.

Nicholas Yeam has also joined Wunderman Thompson in the position of Head of Content, APAC. With nearly a decade of experience in digital and content production. Additionally, Wunderman Thompson Australia’s Chief Technology Officer, Geoff Smeaton, has been promoted to the expanded role as Head of Technology for the region.

Making Science, a media company specialising in e-commerce, cloud and digital transformation has hired Toby McAra as its Chief Revenue Officer. Most recently, McAra was Head of Growth, Data and Digital Media EMEA at Media.Monks. Prior to this he worked as Head of Google Analytics 360 for the UK and Ireland and was Director of Sales UK at Adobe.

Inspired Thinking Group (ITG) has appointed William Eccleshare as Chair through ramping up its acquisitions strategy and US expansion. Eccleshare brings with him several decades of experience leading high-growth creative companies through M&A drives, including digital billboard provider Clear Channel Outdoor. He has also held senior positions at global ad agencies Omnicom, WPP and Interpublic Group.

As reported by our sister publication Campaign, Havas Media Australia has promoted its Head of Data Solutions and AdTech Kevin Fernandes to the newly created role of National Head of Partnerships and AdTech across all media channels. Fernandes joined Havas Media Australia in 2015 as Head of Programmatic Trading.

Integrated Agency ADK Connect has hired Rita Otsuka to undertake a dual role as Chief Executive Officer for SIngapore and other emerging countries as well as Chief Growth Officer for ADK Global. Otsuka brings with her 30 years of experience in CRM, digital, and global marketing – most recently at McCann Worldgroup.

GroupM has announced the internal promotion of Akama Davies to VP of Global Solutions and Operations for Xaxis. Davies joined GroupM four years ago and has most recently been working as Global Practice Lead for Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Prior to this he co-founded career progression initiative We Are Stripes.