This week's London appointments

This week’s round up of London appointments includes Zefr, Allica Bank, Oslam Group, and Seraphim Space LLP. Read on to find out more.

Emma Lacey - Zefr

Zefr, the global leader in brand suitability in walled garden environments, has today announced the appointment of Emma Lacey as Senior Vice President EMEA.

Lacey brings over 15 years’ experience in building commercial teams across the advertising industry. In her most recent role, Emma was part of the EMEA leadership team at OpenX, working as senior director of Buyer Development to secure strategic partnerships with media agencies and brands.

In addition, she has held senior positions within a range of media and ad tech businesses, including AOL, Sky, and Blis. Emma said: “With the rapid evolution of the internet, and ever-changing consumer trends, many brands are still struggling to build sustainable safety and suitability strategies.

“One of the biggest hurdles faced by advertisers is that legacy technology designed for the open web proves ineffective in video advertising, which can mean limited reach and opaque insights. Being part of the Zefr team will allow me to work with brands to develop accurate and transparent strategies that are effective at scale within walled garden platforms.”

Emma will be tasked with bringing Zefr’s suite of pre-bid and post-bid targeting and measurement solutions for Facebook, YouTube, and most recently TikTok, to EMEA. Zefr’s Cognition AI engine combines audio, text, and video frame-by-frame analysis with scaled human review and moderation.

Rich Raddon, co-founder and co-CEO at Zefr, added: “Emma’s appointment comes at a critical time where brands and agencies need more sophisticated and accurate partners for their walled garden investments. She will be instrumental in educating partnering brands on how to maintain safety and suitability on these powerful platforms.”

Morgan Keating, Tim O’Donovan, and Tom Easton - Allica Bank

Following the successful launch of its direct-to-SME business in 2021 and announcement that it will be acquiring 2,000 customers from Allied Irish Bank (AIB), Allica has appointed three new relationship managers.

Morgan Keating and Tim O’Donovan both join directly from AIB, while Tom Easton also previously worked at the bank. It will help provide a sense of familiarity for the many businesses that will move from AIB to Allica.

Morgan will be specifically focused on supporting businesses across the UK in the licensed and leisure sector, such as pubs and hotels. While Tom and Tim have regional remits, Tom covering the South East (primarily Sussex and Surrey) and Tim, covering London and the Home Counties.

Morgan Keating, Relationship Manager for the licence and leisure industry, is primarily based in Birmingham and moves to Allica after 16 years at AIB.

He said: “It’s been a torrid time for hospitality and leisure businesses the past couple of years, but as restrictions ease, they finally have a chance to bounce back. Allica has made clear their commitment to the sector and also the value they place in specialist expertise.”

Tom Easton, Relationship Manager for the South East region, has 15 years’ experience assisting businesses in the region, primarily in Sussex and Surrey, and also previously worked at AIB.

He said: “Owner-managed businesses are often underserved by big banks,” he says. “Allica’s combination of relationship banking and technology is an unmatched business banking proposition. Allica is a safe pair of hands for AIB customers and I look forward to introducing them to what Allica can do!”

Tim O’Donovan joins Allica after 21 years working for AIB. As a Relationship Manager for London and the South East, he explained that Allica’s goal is to make banking straightforward and convenient for customers.

He said:“This very much aligns with my own ethos. With a mixture of great technology and human support, we want business owners to spend less time on their finances and more time getting on with business.

Steven Wait - Oslam Group

Ecommerce platform Olsam Group has hired Steven Wait as director of ecommerce. Steven Wait joins Olsam after almost five years at Mountain Warehouse where he was its head of UK ecommerce, leading all commercial and operational activities on 16 ecommerce marketplaces across three continents as well as their UK D2C channel.

Steven joined Mountain Warehouse from Oliver Wyman, a top tier, cross-industry management consultancy.

Sam, co-founder of Olsam, said: “Steven’s experience at Mountain Warehouse, one of the UK’s leading sports and outdoor brands, where he led both their marketplace and UK D2C commercial strategy & new market entry, overseeing a portfolio of thousands of products, strengthens our operations team as we look to scale our portfolio brands onto new channels globally.

“The demand for ecommerce talent has grown rapidly over the last few years but we have always been proud of the team we are building at Olsam and know Steven is a perfect fit.”

Steven added: “I’m extremely excited to have joined the Olsam team as their new Director of eCommerce. Olsam is at an exciting inflection point in its growth journey, backed by outstanding company values and a brilliant team.

“The opportunities in the FBA-space are endless and I look forward to working with Olsam as they continue to scale within this exciting market.”

Sarah Shackleton - Seraphim Space LLP

Seraphim Space LLP, the manager of Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC, the world’s first listed Space Tech Fund, has announced that the partner of Development Partners International, Sarah Shackleton, has been appointed as the company’s new chief Operating Officer.

Sarah joins Seraphim Space as Chief Operating Officer following a career in the private equity and investment banking sector, working for almost 15 years as a partner of Development Partners International, one of the leading private equity firms investing in Africa and overseeing $2.8bn in AUM.

Sarah will report to Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Space LLP, and will be a member of the advisory board of Seraphim Space.

Mark Boggett, CEO of Seraphim Space LLP, said: “We are delighted to welcome Sarah as our new Chief Operating Officer. The Space Tech sector is forecast to grow into a trillion-dollar industry this decade.

“Sarah possesses a wealth of experience in overseeing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of billion-dollar funds, which will be integral to ensuring, as the managers of the world’s first publicly listed space tech fund, that we continue to grow our portfolio across the full Space Tech ecosystem.”

Sarah added: “I am delighted to join the Seraphim Space team. As the global leader in Space Tech investment, Seraphim Space is exploring, developing and accelerating the Space Tech ecosystem to discover and invest in the companies that will shape a new economic revolution, transform the world and improve people’s lives on a global scale.”

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