Ocean Outdoor UK CEO Nick Shaw has announced a number of promotions as he assumes leadership of the digital out of home (DOOH) advertising business in the UK.
Significantly, regional account director Katherine Kershaw is promoted to group head, running Ocean’s seven strong regional team out of Manchester. Kershaw replaces regional sales director Keith Crisp who is moving across to lead on international sales. Kershaw joined Ocean almost two years ago, while Crisp joined Ocean as an associate director 15 years ago from Viacom Brand Solutions. They will both report in to current head of trading and investment Andrew Gibson, who is promoted to chief revenue officer in the shake up.
Gibson joined Ocean more than 11 years ago as director of trading having worked previously at JCDecaux, Titan and Maiden.
Rachel Sutton, currently head of brand partnerships, joined Ocean as associate director at the same time as Gibson having previously worked client-side at H&M and prior to that at Kinetic on the specialist planning side. She is promoted to director of brand partnerships.
Both Gibson and Sutton will lead the sales division and sit on the UK operating group (UKOG), reporting into Shaw.
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Other senior promotions include group head Matt Tulip who becomes head of agency sales, and group head James Marden who becomes head of planning and investment.
Shaw said: “Andrew and Rachel bring a huge amount of experience to the leadership team and these promotions recognise their understanding and commitment to Ocean. From a skillset point of view, they balance each other well. Andrew with his trading knowledge and Rachel from her strategic specialist, client and media owner side, helping us to navigate the changing advertising landscape.
“International is a big growth area with a lot of brands looking to enter the UK market, something we will capitalise on with Keith heading up that division. Katherine was brought in as part of that succession plan. She lives and breathes Manchester in particular and will bring that same energy to the growth of the regions and nations outside of London.”
As part of Ocean’s ongoing investment in its estate, new formats, people and client relationships, Sutton will recruit a further two executives to her team following the arrival of Craig McFarlane as an associate director last year.
The UK leadership team also includes Marc Keenan, managing director of Ocean Scotland; UK financial controller – operations Kapil Kansara; director of technology and operations John Kilfeather; director of commercial systems Angela Green; development director Tom Ballantine; UK marketing director Marie Le Hur; head of Ocean Labs Melanie Blood; and head of people and talent Nicola Smith.
