News

Pedestrian Group’s Vanessa Lawrence links up with Linkby for chief content officer role based in NYC

Adtech platform Linkby has named Pedestrian Group’s publisher Vanessa Lawrence as its newly-created chief content officer, as it continues its expansion across the US, UK, Australia and Singapore.

The executive leadership role – for which Lawrence will relocate to New York later in the year – will be responsible for all publisher-focused outcomes, including engagement, revenue, product usage and performance, and community-building across Linkby’s global publishing network (The Daily Mail, Refinery29, VICE, Buzzfeed, Marie Claire and Dotdash Meredith are among Linkby’s partners).

Lawrence

Linkby helps D2C brands and publishers drive performance based cost-per-click revenue by harnessing trusted, quality content.

Lawrence has spent a total of six years at Pedestrian Group, where she currently leads a team of 45 across editorial, native and e-commerce for PEDESTRIAN.TV, VICE, Refinery29, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Gizmodo and the soon-to-launch Web3-focused publication The Chainsaw.

In her new role at Linkby, she’ll report directly to Linkby’s CEO & co-founder, Chris Wirasinha, who co-founded Pedestrian (which is now wholly owned by Nine) with his former business partner Oscar Martin in 2005.

Of the appointment, Wirasinha said: “Vanessa is the single most impressive mind I’ve come across in the Australian publishing landscape and, after two stints working together at Pedestrian over the years, I can’t wait to watch Vanessa apply her unique mix of editorial insight and commercial acumen to driving Linkby’s growth on a global scale.

Pedestrian CEO, Matt Rowley said: “Ness has put so much of herself into this place that it can be a little hard to compute at first the idea of her not being here. However, thanks to her remarkable talent, dedication and leadership, she leaves Pedestrian Group in the strongest of positions. I have no doubt the teams and brands she’s worked with here will continue to grow, find new challenges and deliver incredible things – just as Ness will in her next chapter.”

Lawrence’s last day won’t be until mid September, and Pedestrian Group will shortly be beginning recruitment for her position.

Lawrence added: “While I’m going to miss Pedestrian Group terribly, I’m excited to once again work closely with Chris – and the wider Linkby team – to foster relationships between premium brands and some of the world’s biggest digital publishers in a way that benefits their audiences as much as the bottom line. I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Linkby recently raised a $5m seed round to help scale its software platform, which helps connect D2C brands like Koala, Bed Threads, Modibodi and Brosa with digital publishers across the US, UK, Australia and Singapore. It also appointed respected finance director Seymour Cohen (ex-Drive, Singapore Press Holdings & ACP)  to the role of Chief Financial Officer in May.

Lawrence starts her new role on October 17.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.