Digital Masters Awards: The Stars of 2014

HOLLY TUCKER , D IV INIA KNOWLES , KATHRYN PARSONS, AL IC IA NAVARRO, L ISA RODWELL , R ICC ARDO ZACCONI , DAVID BUTTRESS , ALEX CHESTERMAN, V IKTORAS JUCIKAS , ROBIN HANCOCK, ALAN C AIRNS , MIKE WROE, SHANE CORSTORPHINE , ANDY BOTHA, MIKE BUGEMBE , S IMON SMITH, MARTIN GOODSON, MICHAEL STECKLER , ROB JONAS , RAGHAV GUPTA, TOM VALENTINE , RYT IS V ITKAUSKAS , ANDREW ROBB , NICHOLAS HALSTEAD, ON KAIN, NICOLE VANDERBILT, M IKE WROE, HOLLY TUCKER , D IV INIA KNOWLES , SANDR NDRA THORPE , RACHEL EVATT, T IM DAVEY, R ICC ARDO ZACCONI , DAVID BUTTRESS , AL IC IA NAVARRO, CHRIST IAN WOOLFENDEN THE STARS OF 2014 L ISA RODWELL , ANDREW OCKER , MIKE BUGEMBE , MICHAEL STECKLER , KATHRYN PARSONS, AL IC IA NAVARRO, DAN CROW, SHANE CORSTORPHINE , MAT BRADDY, ALEX CHESTERMAN, ALAN C AIRNS ,SHANE CORSTORPHINE , ANDY BOTHA, MIKE BUGEMBE , S IMON SMITH, MARTIN GOODSON, MICHAEL STECKLER , ROB JONAS , RAGHAV GUPTA, TOM VALENTINE , RYT IS V ITKAUSKAS , ANDREW ROBB , NICHOLAS HALSTEAD, S IMON KAIN, NICOLE VANDERBILT, M IKE WROE,

Thank you to the founding partners of the Digital Masters Awards

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Thank you for attending the 2014 Digital Masters Awards

Tonight, we celebrated the UK’s most extraordinary digital executives – the dedicated and talented people spearheading the digital revolution through bold leadership, innovative thinking and the courage to take risks.

An impartial observer could be forgiven for thinking that the digital economy is driven solely by entrepreneurs, investors and exits – at least, if media coverage, awards ceremonies, keynotes and dinner party conversations are anything to go by. What people sometimes forget is that the industry wouldn’t exist without the dedication, creativity and expertise of the people who work in it; in particular, the extraordinary senior executives driving it forward. In creating these awards, The Up Group wanted to bring these unsung heroes of tech – the people who actually make everything happen – into the spotlight. To define a benchmark that would become the gold standard for excellence, and thereby inspire new generations of leaders to build their careers in digital.

Tonight was the result.

We’ve had a lot of help from some wonderful people.

Under the patient leadership of Robin Klein, our distinguished judging panel performed a difficult task with care, dedication and wisdom. We can’t thank them enough. Our marvellous sponsors took a punt on an untried concept because they shared the desire to celebrate digital leadership. We thank Criteo, Google, eBay Enterprise, Mazars, Experian, Eventbrite, Diffusion, White Star Capital and Hoxton Ventures for making this event possible, and the Guardian for helping us spread the word. We are hugely grateful to the hundreds of fantastic executives who participated in this experiment. Before we embarked on the DMAs, we already knew that the UK had some phenomenal tech leaders – far beyond the relatively small numbers that made the final shortlists. However, the depth, breadth and sheer quality of the digital talent out there took our breath away. The UK’s digital economy is in safe hands. Finally, thank you so much for joining us and sharing in the celebration. We hope that tonight entertained and inspired in equal measure. We look forward to welcoming you back next year for the Digital Masters Awards 2015!

Clare Johnston and Robert SwerlingCo-CEOs, The Up Group Clare Johnston Robert Swerling

02Message from Robin Klein, Chairman of the Judging Panel It’s been a great pleasure to review the recent careers of such an accomplished group of digital executives. It’s also been a privilege to work alongside a team of fascinating and distinguished judges, and I’d like to put on record my thanks to each of them for their hard work. We’ve been knocked out by the depth of talent helping to drive innovation and growth in the sector. Choosing is always hard – with imperfect and incomplete data, the decisions have to be subjective – and in this case it’s been particularly challenging. The range of achievement and quality of leadership of the nominees is deeply impressive. It fills me with great optimism for the future when I see such extraordinary people working to drive innovation, growth and employment in the digital industries. People’s views will differ, of course, but I hope everyone can agree that the winners and runners-up exemplify inspirational and effective leadership. The Digital Masters Awards were created to celebrate outstanding digital executive talent, and I’m delighted to be able to play a part in such a worthwhile initiative. I look forward to this becoming an annual highlight, and for the Awards to become the benchmark for excellence in digital leadership.

Robin Klein

THE JUDGING PANEL

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RobinKleinChair of JudgesIndex Ventures

PeterReadInvestor

TanyaCordreyGuardianNews & Media

GayleTaitGoogle

Klaus NyengaardWahanda

ErrolDamelinWonga

WilliamReeveInvestor

Rene RechtmanMakerStudios

AndrewFisherShazam

Rebecca MiskinHearst

Spencer HymanNavigator Commerce

JonBussCriteo

Petteri KoponenLifelineVentures

DavorHebelFidelityGrowth Partners

MikeChalfenInvestor

RobinHoughGuardianMedia Network

04Finding, hiring and retaining great people is recognised to be one of the biggest challenges facing digital businesses today, which makes the achievements of this year’s shortlisted HR leaders all the more impressive.

This group has found themselves at the fulcrum of change within their companies, owning everything from managing the hiring roadmap as part of a strategic shift, to moving offices, to evangelising about the company culture and ethos.

In many ways they are the CEO’s eyes and ears on the ground, supporting them through tough decisions and ensuring they have the information they need to plan effectively.

S H O R T L I S T

Alan Cairns, HR Director, Moneysupermarket.com

Ian Dodd, VP HR, Expedia

Eimear Donaghy, Former Director of HR, EMEA, Facebook

Stefan Enholm, HR Director, eBay

Michael Farry, HR Director, PhotoBox

Robin Hancock, VP, Talent & Culture, Wonga

Penny Handscomb, Former Chief People Officer, Mind Candy

Lorraine Metcalf, HR Director, Zoopla Property Group

Sandra Thorpe, HR Director, Paddy Power

Cathy Wilson, Director, Culture & Organisation Development, Skyscanner

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Sandra Thorpe has been instrumental in helping Paddy Power manage its exponential growth through bold and innovative people practices.

Since joining in late 2011, she and her team have redefined the people agenda within Paddy Power, instituting a business partnering model that enables the rapid roll out of best-in-class people practices throughout the company. She designed and implemented new performance and reward strategies, as well as talent assessment and succession planning processes to mitigate risk and augment the company’s talent pipeline.

Sandra also worked closely with the executive team to define and embed Paddy Power’s strategic direction and values.

Sandra is a pioneer in using talent assessment data to inform strategic talent requirements and as a filter against which acquisition targets are assessed.

R U N N E R U P

Alan Cairns, HR Director, Moneysupermarket.com

Alan Cairns has helped Moneysupermarket build and retain outstanding executive and

digital teams through a period of double digit growth in a highly competitive market. He has done this whilst managing headcount tightly to ensure costs dovetail with top and bottom line results.

Alan has also been instrumental in building a new world-class facility in London, and leads a highly engaged Contact Centre with a strong culture of customer service, and low levels of attrition.

R U N N E R U P

Robin Hancock, VP, Talent & Culture, Wonga

Robin Hancock has overseen dramatic growth in the last 12 months, hiring nearly

300 people for Wonga globally. Around 75% of those were hired directly, with a team of 5, saving over £2m in recruitment fees.

Robin has taken an innovative approach to performance management, adopting a model - “straight talking performance” - that applies learnings from elite sport to help employees deeply understand their performance and motivation. It also seeks to remove traditional “parental” approaches and demotivating forms and structures in favour of individual ownership.

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06The finance leaders on this year’s shortlist have influenced their businesses in diverse ways, often well beyond the traditional domain of a CFO.

Several cited their efforts to create the right culture as their most important contribution, whether introducing long-term thinking into trading-focused environments, or building confidence in the ability of teams to hit targets. Some even found themselves acting as company event planners.

And they’ve done all of that while managing phenomenal growth, raising vast amounts of capital and working hand-in-hand with some of the boldest and most dynamic CEOs in the world.

S H O R T L I S T

Andy Botha, Chief Commercial & Financial Officer, notonthehighstreet.com

Alan Burns, Chief Financial Officer, PhotoBox

Neil Catto, Chief Financial Officer, Boohoo.com

Hope Cochran, Chief Financial Officer, King

Shane Corstorphine, Chief Financial Officer, Skyscanner

Lucy Greggains, Chief Financial Officer, Unruly

Callum Jay, Chief Financial Officer, Green Man Gaming

Stephen Morana, Chief Financial Officer, Zoopla Property Group

Fraser Park, Chief Financial Officer, Hailo

Mike Wroe, Chief Financial Officer, JUST EAT

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EXCELLENCE IN F INANCE

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Mike Wroe, Chief Financial Officer, JUST EAT

Mike Wroe’s most public achievement over the last 12 months was building and leading the JUST EAT IPO team to its successful conclusion in early April 2014. It is striking that this was achieved with minimal disruption to the wider organisation, which achieved 70% revenue growth last year.

As part of this process the finance team delivered an audited year-end for 13 countries, as well as a consolidated year-end, within six weeks. Mike undertook over 80 investor presentations with the CEO - of these, 80% requested shares.

In the background, Mike has built a world class finance team who have successfully introduced a new reporting and consolidation platform as well as transitioning to monthly IFRS reporting and devising plc-ready KPIs and processes. His legal team also worked effectively behind the scenes to plc-ready the business without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

In addition, Mike has taken the lead in defining and refining JUST EAT’s corporate mission and values, as well as launching a programme to develop JUST EAT’s managers of the future across all levels in the business. He also found the time to lead the company’s “World Party” internal conference from design to execution.

R U N N E R U P

Andy Botha, Chief Commercial & Financial Officer, notonthehighstreet.com

Andy Botha’s role at notonthehighstreet is an unusual combination of CFO and

Chief Commercial Officer, with responsibilities spanning finance, marketing, and international expansion.

On the finance side, Andy’s main focus has been on internal reporting, monitoring and analysis, in order to enable the company to pick up on opportunities more quickly and optimise across the marketing mix. In so doing, he has helped transform the finance team into a professional operation providing valued commercial support to functions across the business. These efforts have helped the company grow revenues over 90% year-on-year to £83m in 2013.

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Shane Corstorphine, Chief Financial Officer, Skyscanner

Shane Corstorphine has prioritised long-term thinking over the last 12 months.

During this period, he has rolled out a SIP scheme and Growth Share scheme globally, carried out a share buy-back, and, most famously, brought in Sequoia (traditionally long-term holders of equity) as a partner - at a £500m valuation.

Along with the CEO and COO, Shane has also devoted considerable time to developing a clear strategy for the business, and developing and articulating key drivers (what Skyscanner calls the “Vital 4”). He also took the lead on the acquisition of Fogg as a key enabler for Skyscanner’s strategy.

08The shortlisted nominees in this category are true pioneers, finding new ways to gather, analyse and deploy data to deliver relevant experiences to users and customers, and optimise business operations.

Those on the frontline of the data revolution come face-to-face with novel situations every day. This year’s nominees are leading from the front, challenging their businesses to think differently about deriving actionable insight from the plethora of data available to them.

Some are using data to completely disrupt entire sectors. All are exploring innovative techniques and technologies, and finding creative ways to instil a data-driven approach within the enterprise.

S H O R T L I S T

Lucien Bowater, Director of Strategy & Insight, BSkyB

Mike Bugembe, Chief Analytics Officer, JustGiving

Chris Burke, Director of Insight & Monetisation, Rated People

Clancy Childs, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Tizaro

Mark Curling, Head of Data Analytics, onefinestay

Martin Goodson, VP Data Science, Skimlinks

Dr Orlando Machado, Head of Customer Science, Moneysupermarket.com

Anders Rave, Director of Analytics, Essence

Simon Smith, SVP Platforms, News Corporation

Adam Wright, Business Intelligence Director, JUST EAT

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EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE & DATA

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Mike Bugembe, Chief Analytics Officer, JustGiving

Since joining in 2010, Mike Bugembe’s practical application of big data has played an instrumental role in JustGiving’s development.

JustGiving’s innovative recommendation engine, which algorithmically selects the right campaign for the right person at the right time, has dramatically improved the platform’s customer experience. Linking people to an intrinsically personal decision - which charity or cause to endorse - had previously been very hard to do. The data-driven algorithms and the pioneering work on analytical techniques, spearheaded by Mike, has

revolutionised this process, and pushed JustGiving to the forefront of the online donations space.

The smart use of data tracking has also improved JustGiving’s ability to deal with viral giving campaigns. The huge and sudden injection of traffic for a viral campaign, such as the recent support for Stephen Sutton, can exert extreme pressure on an online donation platform. Thanks to the insight Mike and his team are providing, JustGiving are able to predict such campaigns and manage their platform accordingly. This means JustGiving will never buckle under the weight of people’s desires to empathise with any cause, whatever it may be and however unlikely it may seem.

Mike has grown his division from a solitary operation to a team of 14, collaborating with experts and professors from leading universities to ensure that they remain at the forefront of this emerging and critical discipline.

R U N N E R U P

Martin Goodson, VP Data Science, Skimlinks

Before joining Skimlinks in January, Martin Goodson was Head of Research at Qubit. There, he wrote the mathematical model

which was at the core of the company’s A/B testing product. He also developed machine learning algorithms for analysing the feedback left by visitors to eCommerce websites, allowing marketers to gain an insight into the opinions and desires of hundreds of thousands of their users quickly and accurately.

Martin has emerged as a leading voice in A/B testing tools, writing an acclaimed white paper on the dangers of false positives.

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Simon Smith, SVP Platforms, News Corporation

Since 2011, Simon Smith has led the transformation of News Corp’s online assets into highly optimised data-driven businesses

- underpinned by a state-of-the-art analytical platform.

Simon and his team built the platform and pioneered the use of predictive models and advanced segmentation to optimize the acquisition, on-boarding and retention of customers - supporting the sustained growth of The Times subscription business. He has since overseen the roll-out of this data platform to other News Corp assets around the world.

10Exponential growth, rapid internationalisation and progressive digital transformation of commercial teams - these are the achievements that characterise this year’s Excellence in Commercial Management category.

The judges were particularly struck by the pace at which the nominees are driving change within their businesses, and their relentless focus on delivering commercial success in the context of rapidly evolving and highly competitive markets.

S H O R T L I S T

Julien Codorniou, Director EMEA Platform, Facebook

Jana Eisenstein, SVP Global Accounts, Videology

Richard Firminger, Managing Director Europe, Flurry

Raghav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer, VideoPlaza

Guy Halfhead, Chief Operating Officer, Bookatable.com

Stephanie Himoff, UK Managing Director, Outbrain

Rob Jonas, Global Chief Revenue Officer, PubMatic

Max Raven, Group Revenue Director, Hearst

Michael Steckler, EVP Global Business Operations, Criteo

Edward Ungar, Director Channel Partnerships, EMEA, Google

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companies. The fund brings the successful US microcap venture investing model - a small fund run by former technology executives working closely with entrepreneurs to build value - to Europe.

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Michael Steckler, EVP Global Business Operations, Criteo

Since joining Criteo four years ago, Michael Steckler has helped drive extraordinary revenue growth (to EUR 444m in 2013, up 64% year-on-year), and was a key part of the team that launched Criteo’s IPO on the NASDAQ in late 2013.

Michael has successfully rolled-out Criteo’s different product offerings into 40 international markets, while maintaining a strong business rhythm and a tight-knit relationship between central functions, local sales and operations teams. This success has been underpinned by the Global Business Operations team, a

group created by Michael 18 months ago to drive a number of key functions across the business, including global sales compensation, implementation and training, creative services and global accounts.

Michael recently oversaw the successful deployment of Criteo’s mobile web solutions, including training, upgrades, account monitoring and central reporting. He also took the lead in the recent acquisition of Tedemis, an email marketing specialist, and is overseeing both its integration into the wider business and its roll-out into Criteo’s key markets.

R U N N E R U P

Raghav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer, VideoPlaza

Since joining Videoplaza in late 2012, Raghav Gupta has been instrumental in driving 80+% revenue growth, turning Videoplaza

into one of Europe’s leading ad tech companies with 50% of the commercial broadcasters as its customers.

Raghav has been deeply involved in both the company’s strategy and execution, including its R&D investments into programmatically traded advertising, and entering new markets. His team recently launched Aunia in Spain, the world’s first private digital video marketplace for broadcasters and premium publishers.

Raghav is passionate about coaching and mentoring digital executives, both in his team as well as entrepreneurs at several venture-backed startups.

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Rob Jonas, Global Chief Revenue Officer, PubMatic

Rob joined PubMatic in early 2013 to run EMEA and APAC.

He reset strategy and execution across all go-to-market functions, won key relationships with publishers such as eBay, The Independent, National Rail Enquiries and CNBC, and drove an increase in revenue contribution from less than 5% to over 20% in less than 6 months.

His efforts were rewarded with promotion in November to Global Chief Revenue Officer, where he currently manages the delivery of all sales and service functions globally.

14The breadth and depth of the achievements in this year’s General Management category is truly impressive.

From transforming established retail businesses, to rolling out completely new and disruptive business models internationally, these executives have executed against challenging and highly strategic operating plans.

They’ve done this whilst building out top-notch international teams, and in many cases displaying wider industry leadership, including mentoring the next generation of digital leaders.

S H O R T L I S T

Bertrand Bodson, Chief Digital Officer, Home Retail Group

Adrian Blair, Group Chief Operating Officer, JUST EAT

Sean Cornwell, Chief Digital Officer, Travelex

George Hadjigeorgiou, Chief Operating Officer, HouseTrip

Divinia Knowles, Chief Operating/Financial Officer, Mind Candy

Andrew Robb, Chief Operating Officer, Farfetch

Tom Valentine, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Secret Escapes

Olivier Van Calster, SVP & General Manager International, Ancestry.com

Nicole Vanderbilt, VP International, Etsy

Demetrios Zoppos, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, onefinestay

EXCELLENCE IN GENERAL MANAGEMENTSponsored by Diffusion is an international integrated communication agency with offices in London and New

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Tom Valentine, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Secret Escapes

Secret Escapes has seen explosive growth since its formation in 2010, with turnover forecast to hit £100m in 2014. Tom Valentine, alongside his co-founder and CEO Alex Saint, has catapulted Secret Escapes into a well-known and respected brand in the UK, with a 60% net promoter score and 95% post-stay satisfaction.

Much of the company’s success is down to a robust digital and TV acquisition framework, built and managed by Tom, which has allowed the company to confidently spend over £10m annually at a consistent, predictable and positive ROI. This has led to a profitable UK business and deep confidence in international expansion.

In the last 12 months, Tom has scaled the team from less than 30 to over 100 across the UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the USA, whilst continuing to improve business KPIs.

Tom has built an execution-focused culture within Secret Escapes. He manages his teams according to clear and relevant metrics, ensuring that everyone within the company knows which part of the equation drives success, and is focused on moving the right numbers.

R U N N E R U P

Andrew Robb, Chief Operating Officer, Farfetch

As COO of Farfetch, Andrew Robb directly runs online marketing and operations, the former being the company’s key value

driver and the latter ensuring that customers have an outstanding experience.

Andrew has helped grow the business 100% year-on-year to $275m in sales, while expanding supplier locations to 26 countries and delivering to customers in over 170 countries. He has been instrumental in building a team of over 400 people in 5 locations worldwide and embedding strong cultural values throughout this period of growth; and launching innovative services and solutions that enable Farfetch to deliver outstanding service at a global level.

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Nicole Vanderbilt has driven stellar growth for Etsy in the UK by instituting disciplined ROI-based digital marketing practices. These

have become a model for the wider business, and now contribute over 50% of first time buyers in Etsy’s top international markets. She has also been responsible for bolder PR and marketing efforts, including Etsy’s first international pop-up showroom.

Nicole’s efforts were recognised by rapid promotions, first to oversee Europe, Australia and Canada, and then all of international operations. Under her watch, the international team has more than doubled, with no diminution of quality or cultural integrity.

16The technologists in this year’s shortlist operate far beyond the traditional role of leading the technology function, playing a pivotal part in setting the direction of their businesses, and driving innovation at scale.

From pioneering cloud-based data processing models, to building proprietary technology for unlocking doors, to knitting together multiple platforms and applications, these outstanding technologists and their exceptional engineering teams are delivering world-changing products and services, and in so doing helping cement the UK as a hotbed of technological innovation.

S H O R T L I S T

Mariano Albera, Chief Technology Officer, Ovo Energy

Dan Crow, Chief Technology Officer, SongKick

Nicholas Halstead, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, DataSift

Jonathan Howell, Chief Technology Officer, MADE.COM

Jackson Hull, Chief Technology Officer, onefinestay

Simon Kain, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Zoopla Property Group

Jennifer Langdon, VP Engineering, Skimlinks

David Lindsay, SVP Technology, Farfetch

Toby Moore, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Space Ape Games

Lukas Oberhuber, Chief Technology Officer, Simply Business

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W I N N E R

Nicholas Halstead, Founder & Chief Technology Officer, DataSift

Nicholas Halstead is one of Europe’s foremost technologists, and a pioneer in real-time cloud-based data processing.

Nicholas founded and then drove the vision for DataSift over the last 7 years. In the process, he not only created one of world’s leading R&D-led data processing companies, but invented a new language for unstructured data processing.

Under Nicholas’s guidance, DataSift has become one the UK’s fastest growing SaaS businesses, with 400% growth last year, revenues in the tens of millions, and an ecosystem of over a thousand companies building applications on top of DataSift to leverage social data.

Nicholas is also famous for being the inventor of the Retweet button.

R U N N E R U P

Dan Crow, Chief Technology Officer, SongKick

Dan Crow’s technological leadership has enabled Songkick to innovate and

scale exceptionally quickly. In 2013, the company launched a comprehensive, scalable and secure ticketing solution - all built in-house - that allows them to handle eTickets, paper tickets and reserved seating. Songkick is now selling tens of thousands of tickets per month.

This is just one of a number of innovations that have driven Songkick’s exponential growth. In the last year, the company more than doubled its traffic. They currently have over 2m users of their mobile apps and passed 10m monthly unique users in February 2014.

R U N N E R U P

Simon Kain, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Zoopla Property Group

Zoopla Property Group’s extraordinary success in consolidating the market has been

underpinned by its ability to integrate its acquisitions quickly, efficiently, and without disrupting its existing business. This is largely down to the work of Simon Kain and his engineering team, who have mastered the exceptionally tricky technical challenges that inevitably arise in this area. Simon’s work has allowed Zoopla Property Group to rapidly scale its audience and inventory, with the platform now delivering over 2.5m leads per month to its members.

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18The product leaders in this category are pioneers in an evolving discipline that’s becoming more complex and important as digital businesses mature and expand.

The challenges of building product teams in this context are significant, and the executives on this shortlist have grasped these head on. One shortlisted CPO estimated he spent more than 300 hours in 2013 interviewing product and UX teams.

In addition, these product leaders have often found themselves spearheading initiatives that extend far beyond their core responsibilities, such as leading digital transformation or international expansion projects.

S H O R T L I S T

Chia Chin Lee, Chief Product Officer, Mind Candy

Daniel Danker, Chief Product Officer, Shazam

Tim Davey, Co-Founder & Head of Product, onefinestay

Rachel Evatt, Director of Business Strategy & Operations, Skyscanner

Jonathon Moore, Chief Product Officer, Hailo

Daniel Read, Chief Product Officer, JUST EAT

Jack Russell, Head of Product, Shutl

David Wascha, Chief Product Officer, MOO.com

Lee Wilkinson, Product Director, Hearst

Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas, Founders, Yplan

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Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas, Founders, Yplan

Since the launch of YPlan 18 months ago, co-founders Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas have brought their mobile last-minute event discovery app to over 500,000 customers in London, New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. In the process they have raised $13.7m in funding, gained over 1000 5 star reviews on the App Store and worked with 800+ event partners in the UK and US.

The genius of the app is its simplicity and power, answering a simple question: “What should I do tonight?” The app has proven hugely popular, with a net promoter score above 90, and an exceptional repeat usage rate.

YPlan has won numerous awards and acclaim for the quality of its product and business model, including Best Entertainment App 2013, Startup of the Year 2013, and being listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 7 Hottest Startups of 2013.

The core product focus is now on making the app more social and implementing an event recommendation engine to enable YPlan to serve users the most relevant curated list of events in town each night - to become the “Amazon for events”.

R U N N E R U P

Tim Davey, Co-Founder & Head of Product, onefinestay

Tim Davey has, over the last 12 months, presided over a number of outstanding

milestones and achievements for onefinestay.

Key amongst those has been growing the business internationally. Following a successful launch in New York in 2012, onefinestay expanded to Paris and Los Angeles in September 2013, experiencing immediate success and accelerated growth in both cities. Tim has been heavily involved in these efforts: beyond the operational infrastructure that had to be built on the ground, Tim co-ordinated the necessary internationalisation tools, and led the effort to customise these for local differences.

R U N N E R U P

Rachel Evatt, Director of Business Strategy & Operations (former Product Director), Skyscanner

Rachel Evatt has been instrumental in driving Skyscanner’s extraordinary growth and diversification across products and platforms.

Working closely with the rest of the executive team, she recently led the move from flights to travel - a challenge she describes as a bit like adding new engines to an aeroplane while it’s moving. The transition included continuous improvement of the existing flights platform, developing an entirely new web framework, building from scratch the car-hire vertical and acquiring and integrating the hotels product from another business.

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20This year’s candidates in the Excellence in Marketing category are embracing the entire process of building a business, and challenging outdated notions of the role of marketing in an organisation.

As well as being masters of data, technology and brand, these CMOs are bringing to bear the leadership skills to line up diverse channels and levers behind a clear strategy and vision. And in several cases they are doing so whilst defining and launching whole new product categories.

S H O R T L I S T

John Bernard, Global Marketing Director, Mozilla

Darryl Bowman, VP Marketing, Wonga.com

Mat Braddy, Chief Marketing Officer, JUST EAT

Darren Cairns, EVP Marketing, Green Man Gaming

Andrew Cocker, Chief Marketing Officer, Skyscanner

Carl Mesner Lyons, Chief Marketing Officer, Hailo

Simon Morris, Chief Marketing Officer, LOVEFiLM

Ottokar Rosenberger, Global Sports Marketing Director, Betfair

Martin Talbot, Marketing Director, Wiggle.co.uk

Christian Woolfenden, Global Marketing Director, Paddy Power

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W I N N E R

Mat Braddy, Chief Marketing Officer, JUST EAT

JUST EAT have set the pace for innovative and effective marketing, and under the leadership of Mat Braddy have recently surpassed Domino’s Pizza as the number one takeaway delivery brand in the UK.

They’ve done this through deploying a highly effective challenger brand strategy, including several memorable guerrilla campaigns. These included running for government on an “Anti-Cooking” ticket in a by-election, and then kidnapping Anthony Worral-Thompson on prime time ITV.

Underpinning this strategy is a commitment to “storytelling” as the key driver of growth, rather than the traditional emphasis on performance marketing. Mat has consistently pushed his team to live up to JUST EAT’s mantra of “Don’t be Meh”, with a laser focus on building long-term brand equity. The JUST EAT consumer brand was recognised as an important component of the success of the recent IPO.

Mat has become an evangelist for storytelling as a key marketing technique, and has mentored a number of younger companies on its importance for building long-term value.

R U N N E R U P

Andrew Cocker, Chief Marketing Officer, Skyscanner

Since joining Skyscanner in early 2013, Andrew Cocker presided over a complete

revamp of the company’s marketing strategy, which has contributed to their outstanding results: revenue and user growth have more than doubled year-on-year and the mobile app has reached 30m downloads, of which 20m were in the last 12 months.

Andrew has rapidly scaled his global marketing team, hiring 52 marketers across Beijing, Singapore, Miami and Edinburgh, to actively market in over 30 countries. Other achievements include delivering Skyscanner’s first global brand strategy, and its first fully integrated brand campaign taking market share from competitors and rising to 4th for the first time in the UK travel category.

R U N N E R U P

Christian Woolfenden, Global Marketing Director, Paddy Power

Under the leadership of Christian Woolfenden, Paddy Power has become

famous for its startlingly innovative and highly effective marketing campaigns. Its Rainbow Laces Anti-Homophobia campaign went viral, with 320m impressions on Twitter, and players from 54 professional football clubs wearing the laces. Other successful recent campaigns included the Ryder Cup, Cheltenham and the Ball of Shame (the recent social media response video with Arsenal received over a million organic YouTube views in under a week).

Paddy Power’s award-winning marketing activities are supported by an extraordinarily successful social media strategy. On Twitter, for example, Paddy Power has a monthly reach of 500m people, with 80,000 retweets - more than all the other betting companies combined.

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Jennifer Langdon, VP Engineering, Skimlinks

Alicia Navarro, Founder & CEO, Skimlinks

Kathryn Parsons, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Decoded

Lisa Rodwell, CEO, Wool and the Gang

Alice Taylor, CEO, MakieLab


Holly Tucker, CEO, notonthehighstreet.com


Sarah Wood, Co-Founder & Chief Operating/Marketing Officer, Unruly

S H O R T L I S T

Christelle Chan, VP Marketing, Zipcar

Hope Cochran, Chief Financial Officer, King.com

Julie Deane, Founder, Cambridge Satchel Co

Jana Eisenstein, SVP Global Accounts, Videology

Rachel Evatt, Director of Business Strategy & Operations, Skyscanner

Celia Francis, CEO, WeeWorld

Marion Gamel, VP Marketing EMEA, Eventbrite

Nathalie Gaveau, Founder & CEO, Shopcade

Clare Gilmartin, Former VP Europe, eBay

Lucy Greggains, Chief Financial Officer, Unruly

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W I N N E R

Holly Tucker, CEO, notonthehighstreet.com

Holly Tucker has built notonthehighstreet.com into an ecommerce phenomenon, offering thousands of small creative businesses a multichannel retail platform to enable them to find and sell to new customers online; and consumers a huge range of high quality, original items to buy.

The business generated transactions worth over £80m in 2013 (up 92% year-on-year) from over 27m unique visitors, including 900,000 new customers acquired during the year.

Under Holly, notonthehighstreet.com has developed a reputation for exemplary service for its sellers and customers, with a focus on helping small businesses flourish. In 2013, seven of the company’s sellers turned over £1m+.

Last year, Holly and her co-founder Sophie Cornish were awarded MBEs for Services to Small Businesses and Enterprise.

R U N N E R U P


As CFO and COO of Mind Candy, Divinia Knowles has been instrumental in driving

the monetisation and distribution strategy for the Moshi Monsters brand. 2013 saw the web game cross the 80m registered users landmark and the brand expand into mobile apps and a feature film. Divinia sits on the Mind Candy board of directors and is also the founder of a tech start-up COO networking group.

R U N N E R U P

Kathryn Parsons, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Decoded

Founded and led by Kathryn Parsons, Decoded’s ambition is to empower

individuals and businesses through an understanding of the world of code, data and the technologies behind the screen. To date, thousands of professionals have attended their accelerated learning experiences Code_in a Day and Data_in a Day, from FTSE 100 CEOs to start-ups to entire companies.

R U N N E R U P

Lisa Rodwell, CEO, Wool and the Gang

Under Lisa Rodwell’s leadership, last year Wool and the Gang launched an innovative production model for its knitwear line, harnessing the maker

movement to introduce a completely hand crafted fashion line. Lisa was also instrumental in raising £1.8m to support this move. Since launching the new model, Wool and the Gang has seen 350% growth in online sales and order growth of 430%.

R U N N E R U P

Alicia Navarro, Founder & CEO, Skimlinks

Skimlinks, co-founded and led by Alicia Navarro, has built the greatest market share of any contextual advertising technology

after Google Adsense. Last year, $500m in e-commerce sales went through the Skimlinks platform. Skimlinks is one of the few British companies that not only created the segment it plays in, but has dominated the market ahead of all US and other competitors.

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The calibre of the shortlisted CEOs is a testament to how far the UK tech scene has come over the last few years. The stream of companies going public, the industry champions emerging, the new business models being created and the billion dollar valuations being achieved, are thanks, in no small part, to the outstanding leadership of these CEOs and the fantastic teams they have built around them.

The judges were struck, in particular, by the willingness of these CEOs to make brave and risky decisions, as well as by the clarity of their strategic vision.

S H O R T L I S T

David Buttress, CEO, JUST EAT

Lopo Champalimaud, Co-Founder & CEO, Wahanda

Alex Chesterman, CEO, Zoopla Property Group

Jan Farrarons & George Karibian, Co-Founders & Directors, PaymentSense

Stephen Fitzpatrick, CEO & Director, Ovo Energy

Jonathan Gale, CEO, NewVoiceMedia

Chris Gilbert, CEO, Ubiquisys

Sponsored by Criteo is a global leader in digital performance advertising, working with over 5,000 companies around the world. Criteo has over 800 employees in offices across the U.S., Europe and Asia serving more than 40 countries.

CEO OF THE YEAR

Ning Li, Co-Founder & CEO, MADE.COM

Greg Marsh, Co-Founder & CEO, onefinestay

Jose Neves, CEO, Farfetch

Ivan Retzignac, Founder & CEO, MedicAnimal

Patrick Wall, Founder & CEO, MetaPack

Steve Weller, CEO, uSwitch

Gareth Williams, Co-Founder & CEO, Skyscanner

Riccardo Zacconi, Co-Founder & CEO, King

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Riccardo Zacconi, Co-Founder & CEO, King

The last twelve months have been the culmination of a remarkable journey for Riccardo Zacconi, culminating in King’s IPO on the NYSE in March, and a current market capitalisation of over $5bn. King’s best-known game, Candy Crush Saga, was instrumental in driving the company’s revenues from $22m in the first quarter of 2012 to $602m in the fourth quarter of 2013; however Candy Crush is only one of over 180 games titles available in over 200 countries across multiple platforms, and new games are released regularly.

King has always been a pioneer of new technologies, platforms and monetisation models. Having emerged on the web, and then achieved massive traction on Facebook, King is now at the forefront of mobile reach and monetisation, with more players playing at least one of its games each month than the entire population of the United States.

Riccardo has built a highly execution-focused operation, using King’s tournament gaming site RoyalGames.com as a testing ground for new titles. By tracking the portfolio of games played, and the depth of player immersion, the company determines which titles to invest in and market.

R U N N E R U P

David Buttress, CEO, JUST EAT

David Buttress has presided over an extraordinary year for JUST EAT, culminating in their IPO in April 2014 - the

biggest technology IPO in Europe for 8 years, and the first on the LSE’s High Growth Segment.

JUST EAT’s rapid international growth, and exceptionally fast migration to mobile (from no apps in January 2013 to 50% of revenues coming via mobile a year later, with apps in all 13 JUST EAT countries) has been underpinned by a strong focus on defining and instilling a clear purpose and mission for the company. This was one of David’s key initiatives, and has resulted in exceptionally high levels of employee satisfaction and productivity.

R U N N E R U P

Alex Chesterman, CEO, Zoopla Property Group

Alex Chesterman has in 6 short years built Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) into one of the UK’s most exciting digital media

businesses and owner of some of the UK’s leading online property brands. The Group now has around 90% of all UK estate agents and developers advertising on its platform, delivering over 2.5m leads per month to them. Annual revenues are now in the region of £80m, with EBITDA margins of 50%. ZPG’s success has been driven by a highly effective market consolidation strategy, acquiring 9 separate businesses over the past 5 years to drive inventory and audience expansion. Its market position has been further reinforced by distribution partnerships with key publishers.

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HOLLY TUCKER , D IV INIA KNOWLES , KATHRYN PARSONS, AL IC IA NAVARRO, L ISA RODWELL , R ICC ARDO ZACCONI , DAVID BUTTRESS , ALEX CHESTERMAN, V IKTORAS JUCIKAS , ROBIN HANCOCK, ALAN C AIRNS , MIKE WROE, SHANE CORSTORPHINE , ANDY BOTHA, MIKE BUGEMBE , S IMON SMITH, MARTIN GOODSON, MICHAEL STECKLER , ROB JONAS , RAGHAV GUPTA, TOM VALENTINE , RYT IS V ITKAUSKAS , ANDREW ROBB , NICHOLAS HALSTEAD, ON KAIN, NICOLE VANDERBILT, M IKE WROE, HOLLY TUCKER , D IV INIA KNOWLES , SANDR NDRA THORPE , RACHEL EVATT, T IM DAVEY, R ICC ARDO ZACCONI , DAVID BUTTRESS , AL IC IA NAVARRO, CHRIST IAN WOOLFENDEN THE STARS OF 2014 L ISA RODWELL , ANDREW OCKER , MIKE BUGEMBE , MICHAEL STECKLER , KATHRYN PARSONS, AL IC IA NAVARRO, DAN CROW, SHANE CORSTORPHINE , MAT BRADDY, ALEX CHESTERMAN, ALAN C AIRNS ,SHANE CORSTORPHINE , ANDY BOTHA, MIKE BUGEMBE , S IMON SMITH, MARTIN GOODSON, MICHAEL STECKLER , ROB JONAS , RAGHAV GUPTA, TOM VALENTINE , RYT IS V ITKAUSKAS , ANDREW ROBB , NICHOLAS HALSTEAD, S IMON KAIN, NICOLE VANDERBILT, M IKE WROE,

Digital Masters Awards: The Stars of 2014

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