Performance marketing people: Teads hires ex Yahoo and Dentsu staffer and Calendly has a new CPO

Pete Jackson, Wasserman’s former Head of Strategy and Insights, EMEA, has joined independent advertising agency TroubleMaker as Head of Planning. Jackson brings a wealth of experience and creativity to the role, with notable accounts under his belt from previous positions including UEFA, Wimbledon, NFL, Chicago Bears, Betway, and Microsoft’s partnership with La Liga.

Australian-based independent digital marketing and advertising agency Magic has announced the appointment of a new senior leadership team to lead its expansion in the US and UK. Fotini Choutou joins Magic in the newly created role of Head of Performance (Northern Hemisphere) and Jonathan Renteria steps into the newly created role of Group Account Director, Magic LA.

Choutou was previously Global Performance Director, Biddable at Mindshare and brings a wealth of experience to her new role having worked across prominent global accounts including Colgate-Palmolive, Tiffany & Co, NFL, and United Airlines. Former Director of Growth at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Renteria’s career first started in propulsion at NASA in Los Angeles.

Technology challenger specialist, Harvard, has announced the appointment of Beata Zacharska as Senior Digital Strategist. Zacharska joins the agency following her recent role overseeing Google’s ‘Think with Google’ marketing programme. She has more than ten years of industry experience across global brands, having previously held roles as campaigns director at a retail tech start-up and at advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Performance brand agency Journey Further has announced that Ben Jankowski, former Global Head of Media at Mastercard, will act as a Strategic Growth Advisor to help accelerate the company’s brand awareness and positioning in the US media market. Jankowski is also the founder and CEO of advertising agency Modern Media Solutions.

Recommendation platform for the open web, Outbrain, has announced a series of internal promotions to scale its global operations. Ayal Steiner has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Brand Solutions, Stephanie Himoff to Executive Vice President, Global Publishers and Klaus Ludemann to Senior Vice President, Programmatic and Partnerships. These appointments closely follow Alexander Erlmeier’s promotion to Chief Revenue Officer in October 2022.

Full-service independent agency, Enigma, has promoted Matt Dawe to Creative Director. Dawe joined Enigma in 2012 as a copywriter and has been an integral part of driving Enigma’s creative output across all disciplines, producing notable campaigns for Newcastle Permanent, UniSC, Kennards, SunRice, UON, SYD Airport, NEXT Group and Newcastle Knights. He moves up from his previous position as Associate Creative Director.

Calendly, a business communication platform developer, has hired Stephen Hsu as its new Chief Product Officer. Previously, Hsu was the SVP of product and general manager of integration platforms, API management, and data integration at Salesforce’s Mulesoft. He is currently an advisor for Salesforce Ventures and investor and advisor for Firsthand Alliance.

Michael Dobson has been appointed to the newly created role of Global Chief Digital Officer and EVP Digital at media company Active International. Dobson joined active in 2021 and the promotion will see him continue to also serve in his current role, leading Active’s U.S. digital agency, iNvolved Media, and managing digital efforts for Active’s U.S. operations. Prior to joining iNvolved Media in 2021, Dobson served as Vice President, Social Media Strategy & Buying with Horizon Media.

Integrated Digital Marketing Partner Tangoo has appointed Luke Judge to its board as a Non-Executive Director. Judge brings extensive experience in advertising technology and sales-focused marketing to Tangoo. As CEO of Incubeta UK and US, he took the company into nine new markets and introduced new digital solutions to the company’s offering. Prior to that, he was Sales and Marketing Director at NMPi and his digital marketing career began at BMW GB.

Employee benefits platform Zest has appointed veteran international marketer, Liliana Teixeira, as its new Head of Marketing. This announcement is the first senior hire since the recent appointment of Matt Russell as CEO. Teixeira has nearly a decade of experience in international marketing. Prior to Zest, Teixeira spent five and a half years as a Marketing Manager at boutique advertising organisation, Ocean Outdoor, and most recently held the position of Head of Marketing at software development company, Snap It LTD.

Teads, a global media platform, has hired Krane Jeffery as its UK Commercial Director. Jeffery brings over 20 years of experience at the intersection of media and technology and joins Teads from Warner Bros Discovery where he led WarnerOne, the global digital-first portfolio sales team for clients and agencies across news, sport and entertainment. Previously, he was Head of Digital Solutions at RTL Ad Connect and held leadership roles with Yahoo and Dentsu.

INCRMNTAL, a global incrementality platform, has appointed Hadar Telem, ex Huuuge Games Director, as Director of Business Product Operations, as the growth of its business picks up speed following the launch of its Autonomous platform.

Utiq, a new ad tech business providing an authentic consent service, has officially launched with its CEO and company vision unveiled at the OMR Festival, as well as several senior appointments in Germany. Utiq will be led by CEO Marc Bresseel and will first open operations in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK, with aims to expand to the rest of Europe from 2024. Norman Wagner will become Managing Director of Utiq Germany and Jana Moran will act as COO Germany.