Global digital marketing and experience design agency Critical Mass has expanded its executive leadership team with 13 promotions and new hires. Of note are the promotions of Andrea Lennon to president and Sara Anhorn to chief talent officer. The agency has also expanded its global executive team adding an SVP layer to its existing C-Level and EVP groups. There have been appointments to all tiers in the form of promotions and new hires in order to keep up with agency growth and evolving client needs.
When Chris Gokiert steps into his role as CEO this month, a transition that Critical Mass announced earlier, Lennon, formerly EVP, managing director, will assume her role as president. During her last six years at Critical Mass, Lennon was focused on driving new business growth across APAC and EU regions. In London, she successfully tripled the office’s revenue and staff, diversified the talent pool, and broadened the team’s capabilities. As president, Lennon will focus on client relationships, creative excellence, and business development with an emphasis on developing the agency’s culture and talent.
Anhorn, former EVP of talent, has also been promoted to the global executive team as chief talent officer. As a 20-year Critical Mass vet, Anhorn has been instrumental in fostering young talent and transplanting the culture of the agency’s Calgary headquarters to other office locations around the world. In her new role, Anhorn will oversee HR, talent acquisition, learning & development and internal communications on a global scale and continue to elevate the agency’s unique culture as a purpose-driven organization.
Promotions and additions to the Critical Mass executive leadership team span a majority of the agency’s core disciplines. Beefing up their client service practice, Stacia Parseghian joins Critical Mass from BBDO as EVP, client partner, while Samantha Stringfellow, currently VP, client partner, has been promoted to EVP, client partner. Four other Critical Mass vets have been promoted to the SVP, client partner role–Maria Hodgson, Jason Finch, Alysson Scartz and Heather Livengood—all formerly VPs.
VPs from marketing science, technology, talent, and production have seen executive promotions as well. They include Wilson Tsang, SVP marketing science; Jaimie Patel, SVP marketing science; Mike Lanyon, EVP technology; Scott Ingalls, SVP technology; Phaedra Marshall, SVP technology; Alissa Hansen, EVP head of production; and Rebecca Bloom Geddes, SVP human resources.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More