Dentsu Aegis hires EE digital boss as chief data officer

armitageThe Dentsu Aegis Network has gone client-side to appoint a new chief data officer, poaching EE’s head of digital products Maddie Armitage to head up the operations in the UK and Ireland.
It will be the first time Armitage has worked for an agency, having held senior roles British Gas, Sky and Virgin Media, as well as cloud company Rackspace. She succeeds Scott Thomson, who left Dentsu earlier this year.
In her new role, Armitage will oversee the network’s data and analytics strategy, and play a key part in rolling out Merkle’s insights, planning and activation platform, M1.
Armitage will report to Matthew Hook, chief strategy officer, UK & Ireland, as well as collaborate with the EMEA data team, which is run by Lauren Walker, chief data officer for EMEA.
Dentsu Aegis Network UK & Ireland executive chairman Stef Calcraft said: “With Merkle, M1 and our focus on putting data at the heart of everything we do, Maddie’s expertise will be invaluable in maximising the benefits for our network and clients.”
Armitage added: “I was drawn to the collaborative and forward-thinking approach at Dentsu Aegis Network and am looking forward to helping its agency brands and clients unlock the full potential of its data products and services.”

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