Advertising platform Criteo appointed Patrik Gallinari to lead the research team at the growing Criteo AI Lab in Paris. Gallinari will participate in the scientific animation of the Criteo AI Lab and work with a team of researchers to support and advance deep learning research.

Former GroupM director Stephen Noble moved to Encore Digital Media, the audience-first programmatic partner, as client director. This marks the second hire within the senior management team in the space of two months. Noble will spearhead the company’s client-facing teams in addition to leading sales, advising on strategy and overseeing the programmatic solutions.

Global digital marketing agency Croud hired Mark Bond as its newly created chief operating officer, where he will be responsible for overseeing all global business operations and enhance Croud’s position in the market. Bond will also take a seat on Croud’s global board having previously held senior roles at Vodafone UK.

Media Merchants also created a new role and welcomed Chris Ernst as commercial director. Ernst will work closely with media director Justine Butler as the agency looks to take advantage of its full-service model for retailers and brands.

Search and content marketing platform, Searchmetrics, promoted Britta Mühlenberg to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Mühlenberg was previously VP of human resources at Searchmetrics and in her new role she will focus on rolling out the company strategy.

Google’s former senior engineering lead, Miguel Andrés, joined Badi, the AI-driven rental marketplace as chief technology officer with the aim of continuing to transform the property sector following the company’s Series B funding announcement.   

Bob Strawbridge joined Exterion Media as head of rail, signaling the media owner’s commitment to driving commercial growth in the rail industry.

As Blis strives for further growth, Dave King has been named the global commercial officer. King will join an executive team that has recently been strengthened by the appointments of CTO Aaron McKee and CMO Diane Perlman.

Meanwhile, Monetate appointed CRO Richard Rivera to support the company’s next phase of growth. Rivera brings with him over 20 years of experience, with an impressive track record of scaling hyper-growth tech companies.

Tony Lucia joined Integral Ad Science as chief technology officer. In his new role, Lucia will focus on scaling an exceptional engineering and data science team to build innovative solutions globally. 

Performance marketing agency Merkle promoted Peter Randazzo to global chief technology officer. In his new role, he will report to John Lee, Merkle’s chief product and data officer. Randazzo has been with Merkle for the past four years, serving most recently as CTO for the agency’s product and platform group.

More news in the agency department, with Inflecto Media having recruited Tanya Alden to join their senior global management team as client strategy director. Alden will oversee the client strategy teams across the UK and US with a focus on bringing a fresh approach in developing effective long-term strategies for Inflecto’s roster of clients. Most recently overseeing the growth and success of the client relationship team at Taboola, Alden will utilise this expertise within a new global remit as Inflecto continue the rapid expansion of its client base across Europe and the US.

Clare Hart has been named CEO of William Lea Tag, the global marketing production and business support services provider. Hart is well known as a leader and innovator in the world of information, data and business services.  

A series of changes took place at MediaCom UK, with four of its senior executives taking on new roles within the business. Claudine Collins became the agency’s first-ever chief client officer. Satin Reid, previously joint MD of MediaCom London, was promoted and succeed Collins as the sole UK managing director. While Danny Donovan, who shared the London MD role with Reid, took on the role of MD retail and commerce. Paul Cooper, currently managing director of MediaCom North, also had his role expanded to COO of MediaCom North.

Over at JICWEBS, ad industry luminary Guy Phillipson was named the new chairman. Phillipson replaces Richard Foan who established JICWEBS and signaled his intention to leave last year.

Elsewhere, influencer marketing platform Buzzoole made plenty of senior hires and brought a stronger female presence to the company’s leadership team, having welcomed Melissa Lee as global operations director, Jane Roy as vice president of the Americas, Manola Pegoraro as global chief finance officer, and promoted Sarah Whitfield to global chief marketing officer.

Lastly, The Ozone Project, a transparent and brand safe platform for programmatic advertising, appointed Sophie Raptis as client director to manage relationships with brands.