Performance Marketing People: Staffbase hires Adobe and KPMG veteran as CMO and VaynerMedia expands

Employee communications platforms provider Staffbase has hired David Burnand as Chief Marketing Officer. Burnand has over 25 years of experience in tech marketing teams with the likes of Siemens, Adobe and KPMG.

Staffbase has also appointed Bijal Patel, ex-KPMG and Actis, as Chief Financial Officer and Neil Morrison, ex-KFC and Mitchells and Butlers, as Chief People Officer.

Former Director of Advertising Research at Facebook Daniel Slotwiner has been hired by software platform Double Verify as Senior Vice President of Attention. The industry veteran most recently served as VP of Measurement, Insights, and Product Marketing Manager at GoPuff. Prior to this, he spent a decade with Facebook and before that, some time at Google.

VaynerMedia EMEA has announced the formal opening of its newest full-service agency in Amsterdam. The launch comes alongside the announcement of two senior hires joining the Amsterdam leadership team. Su May Tan Kool, former Group Brand Director at 72andSunny, joins as VP of Client Partnerships, EMEA and Martijn Lasonder, former Strategy Lead at GoSpooky, joins as Strategy Director and Post Creative Strategist.

Team ITG has appointed industry veteran Natalie Somerville as Global Managing Partner to bolster the company’s international expansion. Somerville brings decades of experience to Team ITG, having previously worked with major retailers including Tesco, B&Q and Camelot. Prior to joining Team ITG, she was the Founding Director at Vitamin.

Youtube veteran Caspar Lee’s global influencer marketing business, Influencer, has made two senior appointments. Rachel Powney joins as Global VP of Marketing and Ram Kurvakat as VP of Software Engineering.

Powney joins the company with over 20 years of experience in the media and advertising technology industry at leading organisations, such as Unruly, OpenX, and AOL. Kurvakat is a veteran with two decades of experience, having worked in leadership roles with globally recognised companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Bulb.

Khoros, a digital-first customer engagement software and services provider, has appointed Lindsay Sanchez to its senior team as Chief Marketing Officer. Sanchez possesses 14 years of marketing experience and has held key positions at a myriad of companies including Citrix, D+H (Now Finastra) and Kore.ai.

Outbrain, a recommendation platform for the open web, has appointed Yonatan Maman as Chief Technology Officer and Andraz Tori to the newly created role as Chief Product Officer to bolster the organisation’s C-suite. Maman joined Outbrain in 2011 as a Senior Software Engineer and has served as Vice President of Engineering for the past five years. Tori has served as Head of Recommendations and Data Science at Outbrain for the past four years, following Outbrain’s acquisition of Zemanta, of which he was a founder.

Channel Factory, a global brand suitability platform, has expanded its US leadership team with four new hires and one promotion following 47% year-on-year revenue growth.

Nicholas Greco has been named Senior Vice President, Head of Sales, North America, Daron Porter is the new Vice President, Head of Brand Partnerships, across the US, Canada, and Latin America, Steven Lee has been announced as West Coast Regional Vice President and Evan Marin has joined Channel Factory as Vice President of Sales, East Coast. Chelsea Jacobson has been promoted to Midwest and Canada RVP after building and leading the Central US team.

Digital marketing group Incubeta has appointed Andrew Watson as Marketplaces Director, UK. Watson joins from Amazon Ads’ Global Growth Sales division where he was Advertising Sales Manager; he spent seven years with the company working across multiple divisions.

Louis Rostoucher has been appointed Head of Sales at music licensing platform SphereTrax. The hire follows the recent news that SphereTrax has secured £250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners. Rostoucher joins from music tech business, PlayNetwork, where he led strategies for Apple Music for Business.

Initiative Australia has hired Paige Wheaton as the agency’s new Chief Investment and Partnerships Officer. Based in Sydney, Wheaton also joins Initiative’s national senior leadership team. Currently National Head of Investment at Mindshare, Wheaton brings 15 years’ media experience to Initiative, beginning her career at Mediacom and spending time at several Australian independent media agencies.

Initiative’s global brand has also announced a change with an internal promotion. Danielle Galipienzo’s role has expanded to include Head of Impact, leading Initiative’s purpose-led consulting division. Galipienzo will also retain her current role of Client Director. Galipienzo replaces Jason Maggs who during his tenure at Initiative mentored her to step into the role following his departure late last year.