Nike, Turner Communications Bring On New Brand Marketing Chiefs

Highlights

Lauren Sherman has joined Nike as senior director of digital marketing to oversee the brand’s digital branding and marketing efforts in North America.

“I’m thrilled to be part of this iconic organization and to be doing work that promotes sport and supports athletes. If you have a body, you’re an athlete,” Sherman wrote in an Instagram post announcing the move.

Prior to Nike, Sherman served as head of marketing for both brand growth company Red Antler and delivery brand Shyp.

Turner has promoted Molly Battin, elevating her to the position of executive vice president and chief communications and marketing officer, where she will be responsible for maintaining brand reputation across all of its platforms.

“This is an exciting time in our company’s history, and Molly’s demonstrated leadership, forward-thinking approach and results-driven reputation will be critical as we continue to shape and push the boundaries of what’s possible for Turner,” said John Martin, Turner’s CEO. “Molly’s experience, energy and collaborative style will be extremely beneficial as we continue to advance the reputation of our Turner brand.”

Battin has worked at Turner for 17 years, most recently as chief brand strategy officer, a position in which she was responsible for both corporate and employee branding for the company. Additionally, Battin has served in senior positions for several Turner sub-brands, including upwave, TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies.

Vimla Black Gupta has joined Equinox Fitness Clubs as chief marketing officer, overseeing global strategy and execution for the brand’s 91 clubs.

“As a gifted brand marketer with strong lifestyle credentials, Vimla will be an invaluable asset to the team,” said Niki Leondakis, CEO of Equinox. “Her global perspective and entrepreneurial instincts will be especially important as we expand into new markets and drive innovations that further enhance our member experience.”

Before signing on with the luxury fitness brand, Gupta served as senior vice president of global marketing for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics for four years. Prior to that, Gupta held the title of vice president of new brand development at Idea Bank.

After four years as chief marketing officer at Cadillac, Uwe Ellinghaus has announced his departure at year’s end, citing personal reasons.

“I’d like to personally thank Uwe for his partnership as a member of the leadership team and wish him the best as he pursues his future endeavors,” said Johan de Nysschen, Cadillac’s president, in a memo.

While helming the auto manufacturer’s marketing efforts, Ellinghaus spearheaded Cadillac’s shift from traditional advertising to more experiential activations. He has worked at Cadillac since 2014, after joining from Montblanc International.

WeWork has brought on Julie Rice, founder of SoulCycle, as chief brand officer, where she will expand the company’s community aspects, creating additional amenities and events.

“It’s about leading by example right? I was an entrepreneur, I built something,” Rice told The Cut about her plans to work at a WeWork shared space. “It’s great for other entrepreneurs to see another entrepreneur who took a risk and did it.”

In addition to running SoulCycle, Rice co-founded LifeShop, and investment and advising company. Before opening SoulCycle’s first studio in 2006, Rice worked as a talent manager at Handprint Entertainment for seven years.

Len Van Popering has joined Subway as the sandwich giant’s vice president of global brand management and innovation, a role in which he will be responsible for both brand messaging and changes to the restaurant’s core menu.

“We are evolving our global marketing team to reflect the contemporary vision we have for the company,” said Joe Tripodi, CMO at Subway. “Len’s diverse background, collaborative approach and shared enthusiasm for Subway will help us expand the innovation and creativity so critical to our brand.”

Van Popering has served as CMO at both Applause Innovation Group and Logan’s Roadhouse in the past, as well as senior vice president of marketing and product innovation at Arby’s.

The Rest Of The C-Suite

(Editor’s Note: Our weekly careers post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, December 8. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

Adobe has appointed Scott Belsky to the role of chief product officer and executive vice president of Creative Cloud, the company’s slate of productivity and design tools. In addition to overseeing management and engineering of Creative Cloud projects, Belsky will direct Adobe’s Spark and Behance initiatives as well.

“Scott is a seasoned leader in the creative and design community with a track record of introducing disruptive new technologies and ways of thinking. He combines an unmatched passion for products with an acute vision for how the creative process must continue to evolve,” said Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s president and CEO. “As Adobe enters the next phase of growth in our creative business, Scott is the ideal leader to help drive product innovation in our Creative Cloud offerings and ensure Adobe continues to empower our creative customers to do their best work.”

Belsky most recently served as Adobe’s vice president of products, leading mobile application strategy for Creative Cloud. He joined the company in 2012, after it acquired Behance, a platform he co-founded in 2006.

Digital applications company Kony Inc has appointed Kathy Crusco to the role of executive vice president and chief financial officer.

“As we continue our journey of high-growth and leadership in digital technology, we need a financial and operational executive with Kathy’s strength, track-record, experience, credentials and strategic thinking,” said Thomas E. Hogan, Kony’s chairman and CEO.

Crusco most recently served as chief operating and financial officer at Epicor Software Corporation, guiding the company through several acquisitions over the course of a decade.

DISH Network has announced its CEO, Charlie Ergen, will be stepping down, and to be replaced by Erik Carlson. Maintaining his current title of chairman, Ergen reports the move is to permit him to focus more on the company’s emerging wireless business.

“With more than 20 years’ experience at DISH, Erik brings a complete understanding of the business opportunities both DISH TV and Sling TV possess,” said Ergen. “I have every confidence that under Erik’s leadership our new organizational structure will deliver value for DISH TV and Sling TV and will aid our entry into wireless.”

A 22-year DISH veteran, Carlson served as president and chief operating officer prior to his promotion.

Ben Gibson has joined cloud-computing company Nutanix as CMO.

“Whether by design or by accident, the multi-cloud era is here,” Gibson said. “Our focus will be rapidly expanding our influence and impact across new markets, and within each Nutanix customer—spanning innovative infrastructure managers, cloud architects and application developers.”

Gibson has held the position of CMO at several other networking companies in the past, including F5 Networks, Veritas and Aruba Networks.

George Harrington has signed on with capital bonds platform Overbond as head of US business development, based out of the company’s New York office.

“George’s extensive expertise across both the buy-side and sell-side will be instrumental in furthering Overbond’s open platform strategy as we roll out our services to more than 5,000 US clients,” said Vuk Magdelinic, Overbond’s CEO.

Before Overbond, Harrington worked at Bloomberg as head of global markets, where he led global sales and product teams, handling overall strategy for Bloomberg’s fixed income management platforms.

Apple Worldwide Video has brought on Michelle Lee as a creative executive to assist the company’s expansion into original scripted programming. Before Apple, Lee worked as a producing partner at True Jack Productions, assisting in the development of shows such as The Path, About a Boy and Pure Genius for a variety of networks.

Amazon’s newly opened Australia division has hired its first director of marketing in Arno Lenior. He joins the company two years after departing Samsung in 2015, where he had served as CMO since 2012. Previously, Lenior ran his own consulting firm, helmed marketing efforts at Lion Nathan and also held marketing positions at Apple and Enterprise.

Joanne Lipman, chief content officer for USA Today Network, has announced that she will be stepping down, citing a need to focus more on her upcoming book.

The heightened focus on sexual harassment has led to a flood of interest and opportunities surrounding my upcoming book about closing the gender gap,” Lipman said in an email to staff.

Lipman has worked at USA Today Network since 2015, joining from Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, where she was editor in chief.

Exxon Mobil has announced the merger of its refinery and marketing operations into a single company, named ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Company. Bryan Milton, currently president of Exxon’s marketing division, will helm the united operation, seeking to further improve efficiency.

Milton has worked at Exxon since 1986, where he served as a developmental engineer for Exxon Chemical.

21st Century Fox has named Uday Shankar as president for the Asia region, a role in which he will lead the company’s video businesses, including Star India and Fox Networks Group, across the continent. Additionally, Shankar will continue in his current position of CEO and chairman for Star India.

“Uday’s new role will enhance our strategic focus across all of Asia and enable us to further capture opportunities, building on the transformation Star India has driven in our most important growth market,” said James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox’s CEO. “Under Uday’s leadership, our India business has firmly established itself as a world-class asset with durable businesses across entertainment, sports, satellite distribution and OTT.”

LG has created the position of marketing director for the Western Europe region, tapping Merlin Wulf to fill the new role. Starting this month, Wulf will lead the company’s marketing efforts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherthlands.

Before joining LG, Wulf worked at several advertising agencies including KNSK and Wire Advertising.

YouTube, citing brand and content creator worries, has announced that it will expand its content review team to 10,000 members by the end of 2018. The new jobs will consist of manual moderators and ad reviewers, and will help the video platform train its machine learning algorithms to flag and remove policy-violating content in the future.

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