NASCAR Names Jill Gregory SVP And CMO, And Other Hires

NASCAR announced several executive changes this week, beginning with Jill Gregory‘s promotion to senior vice president and chief marketing officer. In her new role, Gregory will oversee all of NASCAR’s marketing operations and head up the Charlotte, North Carolina, office.

Brian Herbst has been promoted to vice president of global media strategy and distribution. Herbst will continue to develop new media distribution opportunities and digital content partnerships for NASCAR as the media landscape evolves.

Pete Jung has been promoted to vice president of brand marketing. Jung is responsible for all brand and consumer marketing efforts, including the implementation of key industry marketing initiatives.

Warner Bros. Pictures has appointed Michelle Slavich executive vice president of global publicity and strategy. Slavich will oversee domestic and international publicity, which includes heading a team to develop global publicity strategies on all Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema releases. She will also work alongside the marketing group’s senior management team on PR campaign design and strategy for indie and AAA franchises.

Most recently, Slavich served as head of entertainment communications for YouTube, where she oversaw the platform’s entertainment and music PR initiatives, as well as corporate and creator communications.

South Korean mobile game giant Netmarble Corporation is moving their US headquarters to Downtown Los Angeles, in the newly built Wilshire Grand building. Netmarble US will occupy the 11th floor at 600 Wilshire and joins companies like Spotify, Adidas and Warner Music that have recently located to the area.

The Economist Group has combined its sales and circulation divisions, which aims to solve “joint marketing challenges.”

Michal Brunt, currently managing director and chief marketing officer of circulation, will lead the new publisher team in his new position as chief operating officer.

Mark Cripps, currently executive vice president, brand and digital marketing, has been promoted to executive vice president, chief marketing officer.

The Rest Of The C-Suite

(Editor’s Note: Our weekly careers post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, April 13. Have a new hire tip? We’re looking for senior executive role changes in marketing and media. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com)

RealSelf, a community and resource for cosmetic surgery, has appointed Tanja Omeze as its first chief marketing officer. In her new position, Omeze leads global marketing to increase awareness, engagement and connections among and between consumers and medical aesthetic professionals.

Omeze brings 20 years of experience and most recently, served as head of marketing for the Amazon Video store. She also held various marketing leadership positions at  Weight Watchers, Scholastic and Verizon Wireless.

Mary Ward has been named chief marketing officer for content cloud provider ScribbleLive. Ward joined ScribbleLead in September 2017 with the acquisition of ion interactive. In her new role, Ward will lead ScribbleLive’s global marketing organization and continue to build the company’s brand as it integrates its product portfolio and expands into new regions.

Avaya has appointed Becky Carr as head of global marketing. In this role, she will be responsible for leading a worldwide marketing strategy to engage and attract customers. In addition, Carr is expected to ensure broad worldwide awareness of Avaya’s unified communications and contact center solutions and services.

Carr joins Avaya brings several years of technology and service marketing experience. Most recently, she served as chief marketing officer at CoStar Group.

Polaris Industries Inc. announced that it has hired Julie Gilbert as chief customer engagement and growth officer, a newly created position at the company. Gilbert will be responsible for developing and implementing marketing solutions and growth strategies that introduce new consumers to the powersports industry, including segments outside of the company’s traditional core target market.

In addition, Gilbert will provide oversight for Polaris’ corporate marketing, sponsorships and communication efforts, and will help cultivate and launch programs aimed at further engaging RZR owners through the development of rider groups.

Karyn Abrahamson has been promoted to chief marketing officer of Essentia. Abraham joined the company in 2015 as vice president of marketing and brand innovation. In this role, Abrahamson will continue to oversee all of the brand’s marketing efforts that include marketing, finance, business strategy, operations and sales.

Casey’s General Stores has appointed Chris Jones to the role of chief marketing officer. Jones brings 27 years of marketing experience to the hardware store chain, having served in leadership or executive roles at Mars, Inc., Athene, USA and Kum & Go.

In his CMO role, Mr. Jones will oversee the Marketing, Advertising, Food Service and Digital activities at Casey’s, among other responsibilities.

Process mining technology firm Celonis has named Anthony Deighton its new chief marketing officer. Deighton will lead the global marketing and communication strategy and will head the team responsible for driving the rapid market adoption of Celonis’ process mining software.

Deighton previously served as chief technology officer and SVP of Products at Qlik, as well as general manager of Siebel ERM.

Learfield has created a new position of vice president and market director to serve its collegiate relationships across the country.

Britt Oligschlaeger, Landon Day and Tony Soares were promoted to this new role within the regional structure, having served with Learfield for 12, 11 and seven years respectively. Mike Haake, new to Learfield, will hold the same position and brings 30 years of media and sales experience to the collegiate marketer.

Larry Gelfand has been appointed senior vice president of brand partnerships, East at mitú. Gelfand will lead mitú’s eastern territory client portfolio and partner with associated agencies to lead the proposal, negotiation and execution of branded partnerships across the telecommunications, sports, QSR and auto industry categories. Gelfand will directly manage a team of dedicated sales directors.

Johan Buse has been appointed CMO for iflix and will head the company’s centralized operations. Buse joins the SVOD service after serving as chief commercial officer for Ooredoo.

The hire comes just as iflix is centralizing all its marketing operations to Kuala Lumpur. Last month, iflix also launched Studio2:15, a creative production business for short-form video content. The new studio aims to create engaging and experimental snackable and short-form content for the iflix platform.

TriNet has named Michael Mendenhall senior VP, chief marketing officer and chief communications officer. In his new position, Mendenhall will lead all the company’s marketing and communications efforts including messaging, branding, advertising, product marketing and corporate communications.

Mendenhall joins the company after less than a year with IBM as CMO, CCO for IBM Watson and IBM Cloud.

African epayments company Interswitch has appointed Cherry Eromosele as its group chief product and marketing officer. In her new role, Eremosele will provide “leadership and strategic direction for the end-to-end product innovation, product development, customer value management and product marketing functions, while continuing to champion the Group’s brand management, corporate communications and corporate social responsibility functions” across the entire Interswitch portfolio.

Ian Partilla has joined GumGum Sports as vice president of sales to lead global sports revenue efforts. Ian brings 20 years of experience in sports marketing, having worked with companies like NBC and ESPN.

“GumGum Sports has created something unique, thoughtful, thorough, and complete,” said Partilla. “I know teams, leagues and brands will be excited. Joining the team was too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Albert Cheng has been named Amazon Studio’s new co-head of television as part of a series development team shake-up. Cheng previously led the company as interim chief after the departure of former executive Roy Price. A former ABC digital exec, Cheng had previously served as COO of Amazon’s entertainment division, a role he will continue in going forward.

Sharon Tal Yguado, who had been named head of scripted development, will serve in the new structure as head of genre series.

Turner’s Bleacher Report has named Ed Romaine senior vice president and chief brand officer. This newly created role coincides with Turner’s unveiling of Bleacher Report Live, a new streaming sports service that features live programming from NBA, UEFA, NCAA and others, available on a per-event and subscription basis.

As reported by Variety, Romaine will oversee Bleacher Report‘s entire marketing organization, heading up sales marketing to support revenue-based efforts and brand marketing.

“Having Ed on board means we’ll have an experienced leader in place to further articulate and spread the incredible power of B/R’s platforms for our advertising and brand partners,” said Dave Finocchio, CEO and co-founder of Bleacher Report.

Gerald Purgay has joined Oasis Outsourcing as chief marketing officer. Purgay will be focused on driving growth via innovative and customer-centric marketing strategies. He recently served as CMO of Talent at Mercer.

“As Oasis continues to grow, it is critically important that we keep building our management team with experienced, talented professionals who will help drive our culture of values, collaboration and excellence,” said Kelley Castell, chief operating officer. “I’m confident that Gerald’s vast experience and track record of success will be invaluable to Oasis as we continue our focus on providing best-in-class HR solutions and experiences to our clients and worksite employees.”

Job Vacancies 

Make sure to check back for updates on our jobs page.