Digital Marketing People on the Move: November 2014 Roundup
This is a roundup of new hires and promotions in the digital marketing industry during November of this year.
2015 is nearly upon us, as November has already come and gone. This past month, global creative agencies and marketing companies were busy looking for top-performing digital talent to prepare for the new year.
Vladimir Vapnik Joins Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Team
Facebook has hired Vladimir Vapnik, who wrote the first support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. This is a high-profile hire in the machine learning space, because today SVM algorithms are widely used to analyze data and recognize patterns.
Vapnik joins Facebook’s artificial-intelligence unit after the social network tapped Yann LeCun, a pioneer of convolutional neural networks, as its head of AI Research.
The IAB Adds Three Key Positions to Its Executive Team
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has appointed Lisa Milgram as senior vice president of membership programs, Carl Kalapesi as vice president of industry initiatives, and Virginia Rollet Moore as vice president of events.
Milgram has been in charge of the IAB conference portfolio for the last five years, most recently serving as vice president of events. In her new role, Milgram will lead the team to supervise the requirements of the IAB’s more than 650 member companies, and fulfill those needs.
As the new vice president of industry initiatives, Kalapesi will manage the IAB Committees and Councils product portfolio, and ensure the high quality of their deliverables. Previously, he served as senior director of industry initiatives. Prior to that, Kalapesi worked for Boston Consulting Group, where he was a project leader in the technology, media and telecommunications, and digital economy practices areas specializing in the business impact of technology.
Rollet Moore joined the IAB in 2002. She has been essential to the growth and the ever-growing profitability of the organization’s events business. In her new role, she will take on a greater management role overseeing events for the IAB.
Hulu’s Peter Naylor Joins the IAB
In addition to the three executive promotions above, the IAB has launched the digital video center of excellence, a division focused on the research and development of digital video, and has named Peter Naylor as chairman of the new division.
Naylor joined Hulu in February 2014, where he served as senior vice president of ad sales. Prior to that, he led digital sales at NBCUniversal.
The new digital video center of excellence will be based in the IAB’s New York headquarters. Its new research projects will include studies on video and advanced-TV buyer perceptions and ad spending, TV/digital video share shifts, and video ad-frequency capping.
Sven Huberts to Lead Isobar Asia-Pacific
Global digital marketing agency Isobar has appointed Sven Huberts as regional managing director of Isobar Asia-Pacific. In his new role, Huberts will lead the agency across the region.
Huberts has more than 11 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. Before this promotion, he worked for Isobar in the Netherlands where he held the role of managing director since 2010. There, he merged three agencies within mobile, social, and digital activation into one integrated Isobar offering. He also spearheaded Isobar’s acquisition of Social Embassy.
Huberts was one of the founding members of digital agency Marvellous in Amsterdam, which was rebranded to Isobar.
Graham Drew Joins Grey Group Malaysia
Grey Group Malaysia has appointed Graham Drew as executive creative director.
Drew started his career with creative communications agency Shine. In 2004, Graham set up his own PR agency Resonate within Chime Communications, and ran the agency for nearly seven years.
An industry veteran, Drew has won a number of industry awards, including a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Shorty Awards for O2 (digital/social media), and was an integral part of Campaign’s Campaign of the Year last year.
Sancharitha Jayathilake to Be New Chief Operating Officer at Geometry Global Sri Lanka
Geometry Global Sri Lanka has appointed Sancharitha Jayathilake as its new chief operating officer. In his new role, Jayathilake will be responsible for promoting the concept of precision activation to brands in the local market. Previously, Jayathilake worked for OgilvyAction in Sri Lanka where he oversaw key activation departments.
