Twitch Taps New Head Of Global Marketing; IBM Watson, LendingTree, Dick’s Name New CMOs

Twitch has hired Kate Jhaveri as their senior vice president of marketing, the social video platform announced Tuesday.

Jhaveri will report to CEO Emmett Shear and be tasked with leading global marketing and communications and grow the community with unique content experiences.

“Twitch has already done a great job leveraging owned and earned media, in-product messaging and of course with its own weekly show introducing new features and content to our community,” Jhaveri told AListDaily. “I’m looking forward to building on this great foundation and deepening our storytelling about the power and richness of our community across more platforms. . . . Twitch has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, and a key focus for us this year is to bring more visibility to new broadcasters and content categories that have emerged recently thanks to our deeply engaged community.”

Before joining Twitch, Jhaveri led global consumer marketing for Twitter, where she was responsible for end-to-end marketing, including brand and product marketing, paid acquisition and lifecycle, and all consumer touchpoints. Prior to Twitter, she led mobile marketing at Facebook and was responsible for launching and growing new mobile products. Jhaveri previously has worked at Microsoft for seven years as well, leading global consumer marketing and communications teams for products like Windows and Office.

“Having spent a good part of my career working with social platforms, I’m thrilled to be a part of the Twitch team and to bring the excitement and energy of this brand that is so beloved to a larger audience,” Jhaveri said.

Michael Mendenhall has been appointed CMO for IBM Watson and Cloud Platform.

Mendenhall, a former Hewlett-Packard and Disney marcom executive who most recently worked for electronics solutions company Flex, will be based in San Francisco and be tasked with global marketing, branding and communications.

Online loan marketplace company LendingTree named former Travelocity executive Brad Wilson as their new CMO to oversee brand strategy, marketing operations and consumer engagement.

“As we continue to improve our market position, expand into new categories and scale our business, it’s imperative to bolster our leadership team with executives of this caliber to support future growth,” said Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree. “Brad’s unique leadership experience and strategic omni-channel marketing approach will undoubtedly support our growing portfolio of consumer-centric products and services.”

“I have always been inspired by the mission of the company and its pro-consumer focus,” said Wilson. “I am even more impressed with the culture that LendingTree has cultivated to support the company’s growth.”

Scott Hudler has been named CMO and senior vice president for Dick’s Sporting Goods to oversee the brand’s overall marketing and consumer engagement strategy and implementation. He will report to company president Lauren Hobart.

“Scott will play a pivotal role in driving our continued digital transformation across all consumer touch points and optimizing all of our marketing channels,” said Hobart. “His experience will make an immediate impact on our team, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the DICK’S family.”

For the last 11 years, Hudler worked at Dunkin’ Brands, most recently as senior vice president, chief digital officer. Previous to that, he was at Mars Inc., holding a variety of marketing roles in brand, sponsorship and marketing communications.

“I have always admired the Dick’s Sporting Goods brand as both a marketer and as a consumer. I am incredibly excited to align my personal and professional passions and lead the digital transformation for such a strong consumer brand,” said Hudler.

Warner Bros. Digital Networks is making moves within their management teams by naming Eric Besner, senior vice president, business development, Greg Salter, senior vice president, business, strategic planning; Katie Soo, senior vice president, marketing.

“We’re excited to be growing the Digital Networks team with the addition of Katie, Greg and Eric,” said Jay Levine, executive vice president of Warner Bros. “They each bring broad experience and a digital-native perspective to their respective areas of expertise and will be key in helping us ramp up our operations as we continue to grow both our digital short-form production and OTT offerings.  Combined, these executives have worked at some of the industry’s most successful and respected digital innovators—including Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Warner Bros., and Fullscreen—and I look forward to working with each of them.”

Twitter has tapped Ned Segal as chief financial officer. Segal most recently served as a senior finance executive at Intuit. He previously was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, too.

“Ned’s experience in financial operations as a public company and business unit CFO, along with his background serving technology companies and investors, are an ideal fit for Twitter as we work to extend our positive momentum, continue growing our audience and achieve greater operating efficiency,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a statement. “He brings a principled, engaging and rigorous approach to the CFO role, with a track record of driving profitable growth.” 

Andrew Ip has joined Charter Communications as the company’s senior vice president of emerging technology and innovation. Ip will be tasked with “introducing, developing and commercializing new technology that will enable enhanced customer experiences and help the company expand into new marketplaces.” Ip most recently served as senior vice president and managing director at Madison Square Garden Ventures.

“We are very pleased to welcome Andrew to the engineering team at Charter,” said Jim Blackley, executive vice president, engineering and IT for Charter Communications. “Andrew brings a wealth of technical expertise and a unique vision that will enable Charter to further drive the adoption and roll-out of emerging technologies.”

Personalized photo products and services brand Shutterfly announced the hiring of Scott Arnold as president of Shutterfly Enterprise to oversee the organization’s emerging division.

“Scott’s proven track record and leadership experience make him the right leader to take on the important work of developing a long-term enterprise strategy and continuing to grow the division by leveraging our core technological and manufacturing capabilities,” said Christopher North, president and CEO of Shutterfly.

Legend 3D, a 3D conversion, VFX and VR studio, has made eight additions to their executive management team with the hirings of: Richard Baker (chief creative officer), Barry Stagg (CMO), Scott Willman (CIO), Crys Forsyth-Smith (vice president of production), Prasanna Kodipadi (vice president of international operations), Chris McClintock (senior producer), Lisa Sepp-Wilson (head of VFX production, Toronto) and Simon Kern (stereo supervisor)

“These key roles reflect Legend’s ongoing commitment to provide clients with the most experienced and accomplished professionals in our business,” said CEO Aidan Foley. “As an industry leader, Legend takes serious our obligation to engage world class talent in all facets of our operations.  We’re very pleased to welcome these respected and skilled new members to the Legend family.”

Augie Renna is joining northeast vacation destination Foxwoods Resort Casino as vice president of national marketing. Renna recently was the president of national marketing for Tropicana Las Vegas and has over 30 years of casino marketing and leadership experience.

“[Augie] is an invaluable asset who will help drive the growth of our brand nationally while spearheading player development strategies and strengthening communication with the most important part of our business, our customers,” said Felix Rappaport, president and CEO of Foxwoods.

TriHealth has a new vice president of marketing communications in Rob Whitehouse.

The Las Vegas Golden Nights, the NHL’s latest expansion team, have parted ways with Nehme Abouzeid, their senior vice president and CMO.

Abouzeid, a Sin City marketing veteran with stops at Wynn Las Vegas and Las Vegas Sands Corp, announced his departure on Facebook. “Pro hockey effectively launched in Vegas. City excited. Team drafted. Brand rolled out. Flagship store opened. Fan base engaged and growing. Looking forward to the next journey helping other companies and brands do the same. Look for my own firm launching soon in Vegas.”

Jason VandenBerghe, formerly a Ubisoft Montreal creative director and widely known as the yelling Viking man behind the video game For Honor, is joining ArenaNet as its new director of design.

VandenBerghe, who also worked on such titles like Far Cry 3, Ghost Recon Future Soldier and Red Steel 2, released the following statement on his Facebook page.

“I won’t be making games directly any more – I’ll be studio level, shepherding teams and growing people. I’m… sort of thrilled about how difficult that sounds,” VandenBerghe said.

Jennifer Chasteen has been promoted to the newly created position of vice president of brand strategy and activation for Church’s Chicken.

“Jennifer has been instrumental in defining marketing strategies that amplify Church’s purpose of creating great chicken experiences that guests love,” said Hector Munoz, executive vice president and global CMO at Church’s. “Paired with her deep activation expertise, that vision will now carry all the way through to the local marketplace.”

J.C. Penney CFO Edward Record has stepped down from his position at the retailer.

“I’ve had a very rewarding experience at J.C. Penney, and am proud of the work we have undertaken to strengthen the company’s financial condition,” Record said. “J.C. Penney is well positioned for the future, and I will continue to follow the company closely as the team builds on the positive momentum it has experienced over the last few years.”

Univision ad-sales chief Keith Turner will retire from his post as president of ad sales and marketing at the end of the year. Prior to joining the Spanish-language broadcaster, Turner served as the senior vice president of media sales and sponsorship for the NFL, where he oversaw the NFL sponsorship business, as well as advertising sales for all NFL media platforms.

Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.’s vice chairman, executive vice president and chief content officer, is retiring from the company.

Microsoft will cut 3,000-to-4,000 jobs in its sales and marketing divisions, which employs about 50,000 people worldwide. The move follows their recent announcement that the tech giant would be realigning the two divisions, moving the company’s focus toward cloud services, data analysis, artificial intelligence and digital business opportunities. The cuts will “enable [Microsoft] to align the right resources for the right customer at the right time,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president for worldwide commercial business for Microsoft, per The Wall Street Journal.

(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, July 14. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

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