People on the move: hires and departures including Starbucks, Think Jam, MainAd and more

Hearst UK chief executive Anna Jones is stepping down from the role in 2017 to co-found AllBright, a funding platform for female-led businesses in the UK.

Jones completes her tenure as chief executive of Hearst in February 2017 after five years with the company. She is going on to co-found AllBright with Debbie Wosskow, serial entrepreneur and chief executive at Love Home Swap. Jones will also become executive chairman of ShareStyle, a digital marketplace for style services.

"ShareStyle will give creatives a showcase and route to market," Jones said, "AllBright the investment and support for those budding entrepreneurs."

Grey

Grey has picked the chief executive of its business in Latin America Alain Groenendaal to oversee its markets in Europe following David Patton’s appointment as global president for Y&R.

Groenendaal will relocate to London as president and chief executive of Grey Europe, ending a four-year stint in one of the agency’s emerging markets. During that period, he steered the division to acquire Circus Grey in Peru and Maruri Grey in Ecuador.

He joined in 2008 to head up its multicultural offer Wing in the US. Prior to that he worked at several Leo Burnett offices including Chile, Puerto Rico and Brazil.

Think Jam

Think Jam has boosted its creative studio’s capabilities with the appointment of a creative operations director and ten new hires after a number of international new project wins for the agency’s creative department.

Rory Hallam, the entertainment-marketing agency servicing clients in the UK and US's former director of media, has been promoted to the role of creative operations director. This new role seeks to expand the agency’s production backbone, build new skills, products and drive innovation.

Bauer Media

Bauer Media has appointed Christian Baesler as managing director of Bauer Xcel Media, the group’s digital arm, to oversee its operations in the UK and US following the departure of Sam Jones last week.

Baesler joins from New York where he was president of Bauer’s digital business for the US.

He began his career with Bauer at the group’s headquarters in Hamburg, and after four years was relocated to New York to create Bauer Xcel Media, focusing entirely on growing its online brands and expanding its digital portfolio.

Dropbox

File sharing brand Dropbox has announced the appointment of Carolyn Feinstein as its new chief marketing officer.

Feinstein has been in the industry for more than two decades, heading up Electronic Arts’ (EA) global marketing team as SVP until 2014. Here she was responsible for brand campaigns such as Fifa, The Sims and Battlefield, before leaving to become VP of marketing for Pure Storage.

Dennis Woodside, the company’s chief operating officer, said: “[Feinstein is] a talented and passionate storyteller who knows how to capture the imagination of audiences around the globe. As our marketing lead, she’ll continue to strengthen our brand by highlighting our culture of innovation and how it enables our users to do amazing things.”

MainAd

MainAd has appointed Michele Marzan as chief strategy officer.

In his previous role as board member and vice president of IAB Italy, Marzan launched a number of initiatives including programmatic advertising and market performance.

Talking about his new role, he said: “The company is already taking strides beyond programmatic by introducing proprietary machine learning technology solutions fuelled by audience and customer insight.”

Soda Stream

Soda Stream has promoted Robert Harley from national account manager to sales director.

In his new role, Harley will take responsibility for developing the UK sales strategy.

Wayve

Wayve has appointed Shirley Smith as commercial director to oversee sales and new business.

With over 19 years’ experience in the industry and work with clients including Unilever, FCA and P&G to name a few. Smith will be responsible for global commercial strategy for the company.

Starbucks

Starbucks has announced plans to increase its footprint in mainland China to 5000 stores, as it promotes Belinda Wong to CEO.

It’s the first time Starbucks China has had a CEO as Wong is promoted from her former role as president.

Wong will now oversee the expansion of Starbucks in China, from 2300 stores to 5000, reporting into John Culver, group president of Starbucks Global Retail.

Criteo

Criteo has appointed Elie Kanaan as executive vice president of marketing.

In his new role, Kanaan will lead the company’s product marketing, marketing and communication initiatives.

He said: “ “What marketing leaders want today is measurable business results from their marketing and ecommerce investments. My job is to make sure that Criteo provides to its clients is known to everyone who matters, across the globe.”

Visa

Citing the need to spend more time with family on the East Coast, Charlie Scharf has resigned as Visa’s chief executive officer. Scharf said that he could no longer spend the time in San Francisco that was needed to do the job.

“I love working and running this great global company and I am sad to have reached the conclusion that I should step down, but running a San Francisco based company just doesn’t work for me personally right now and wouldn’t be fair to Visa,” Scharf said.

Viacom Labs

Viacom Labs has named Kiel Berry as co-head and senior vice president.

In her new role, Berry who was most recently launched and headed Linkin Park’s Machine Shop Ventures, will co-lead Viacom Labs with Susan Claxton who was also recently promoted to senior vice president.

Berry will be based in New York following the Viacom Labs launch earlier this year in May.

Social Reality

Social Reality has appointed J.P Hannon as the company’s chief financial officer.

After serving as vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer at Cumulus Media, Hannan said: “I am excited to be joining the company.”

Want to get your career on the move? Check out The Drum Job page and follow @TheDrumJobs for updates.