Salmat has announced that Sarah Pike has joined the company in the newly created role of CMO; bringing over 18 years’ experience in the telecoms, mobile, TV, technology and digital sectors.

Pike’s international and local experience in building brands will play a pivotal role in driving Salmat to establish a clear framework and process for building and maintaining innovative products and services; as well as driving all marketing activity across the company.

At Optus, Sarah held a number of positions across the business. As vice president product marketing she was responsible for the Optus portfolio of products and services across the Consumer & SME business. As the vice president of consumer broadband, Pike drove transformation of the Optus Broadband & TV business; establishing new thought platforms to challenge Telstra and position Optus as the alternate brand of choice, following several consecutive years of share & profit decline. She was also responsible for annual revenues of $A1billion and one million-plus customers.

Prior to Optus, Pike, who is originally from the UK, led the SME Products and Marketing business at BT, following a highly successful time at The Carphone Warehouse in London. There, as one of the founding members of start-up telco TalkTalk, Sarah drove the company from creation to over 3 million customers.

Pike has significant experience in multi-channel marketing and the smart use of big data and analytics, having driven campaigns across retail, field marketing, digital, and outbound telesales for both large business and consumer customer bases.

Salmat CEO Craig Dower said on Pike’s appointment: “We are very excited to welcome Sarah to our Salmat team. Her international and local experience in building brands, re-orienting business focus and managing the end-to-end lifecycle for product portfolios is very impressive.

“As a persuasive communicator, influencing at board level to lead the strategic marketing agenda, Sarah has rich experience across the full marketing mix, delivering high growth and shareholder value, with an absolute focus on the customer. Her experience on brand, proposition, customer acquisition and retention, network, customer experience and cost transformation, is exactly what Salmat needs to deliver our vision and ensure strong profitability for our stakeholders.”

Pike said on her new role: “I am delighted to join the Salmat team. Salmat has a long and proud history as one of Australia’s leading marketing and customer engagement specialists.”

“I’m excited about the road ahead and how I will bring my experience to the Salmat story; Salmat’s purpose has not changed since its inception – we build great relationships and help our clients get closer to their customers.