Senior Hires in Dubai and Australia for billups

Fast-growing Out-of-Home (OOH) ad automation and attribution specialist billups has named four more senior leaders. David Hawkins, Wissam El Rayess, Nicci Loudon and Kirstie Caldwell are charged with driving growth across ANZ and the Middle East.

billups' mission is 'to make Out-of-Home as automated and attributable as the most effective digital ads'. The New York-based firm combines patented scientific targeting, Out-of-Home measurement and an AI-powered recommendation engine to help advertisers, agencies and media owners optimise their promotion and monetization of the medium. In the last year it has launched an analytics platform specifically for the tracking and measurement of OOH campaign performance, and an R&D center called Billups Labs; acquired Brussels-based independent OOH agency Outsight; expanded to ANZ with the acquisition of New Zealand OOH agency Billie Media; bolstered its global and APAC leadership with the appointments of Claudia Valderrama and Ben Milne; and enhanced its offer with the addition of attention metrics gauging how well traditional and digital OOH units stand out in their environments.

Hawkins (pictured) has been named Managing Director, Middle East while El Rayess will serve as Business Director, Middle East, bringing experience of agency relations and commercial partnerships - both are based in Dubai and both worked previously at JCDecaux. Loudon, formerly at Talon Outdoor, will serve as Business Director, ANZ, overseeing regional operations and growth strategies from a base in Melbourne. Caldwell, who has worked at both JCDecaux Australia and Talon, will serve as Account Director, ANZ, and will work from Sydney.

Hawkins and El Rayess will report to James McEwan, CEO of EMEA, while Loudon and Caldwell will report to Milne.

Global CEO David Krupp says the appointments 'represent a significant step in our mission to make all Out-of-Home advertising accessible and accountable'. He adds: 'With their leadership, we are poised to deliver even greater value to our clients by providing consistent in-house billups services and measurement across international activations'.

The firm is online at www.billups.com .