Pandora Recruits From Fairfax For New Sales Gig
Internet radio Pandora has today announced Fiona Roberts will join Pandora Australia as the NSW and QLD sales director.
Roberts joins from Fairfax Media Australia where she most recently held the position of agency group director responsible for the GroupM business. Prior to that she held leadership roles at carsales.com.au and News Limited.
Roberts will be charged with growing the NSW and QLD business, working with the team to introduce advertisers to over a million highly engaged listeners, through audio and digital formats, and new cut-through products such as sponsored listening and branded radio.
Roberts is excited to be joining a high growth, mission focused business. She said: “The opportunity to work for a brand like Pandora was one I couldn’t let pass me by. Their product offering, data capabilities and commitment to delivering the very best platform to bring artists and music lovers together is incredibly exciting. I’m looking forward to further building upon their success in 2016.”
Also announced today is the hire of James Butcher who has been appointed the New Zealand sales director. Butcher joins from MI9 where he has been general manager of the New Zealand operation since May 2014. Prior to that he held roles at MI9 and Microsoft in Australia and the UK.
“I’m incredibly excited to be joining Pandora, a product I have loved as a consumer and a brand I have admired throughout my media career,” said Butcher. “The local team have done a brilliant job to date and I look forward to working with them in taking the NZ offering to the next level.”
Both Butcher and Roberts will report to Chris Freel, commercial director ANZ, and join Rachel Page (VIC/WA/SA sales director) and Shaun Alexander (client strategy director) on the commercial leadership team.
“I am so excited to welcome Fiona and James to the team,” said Freel. “They are both exceptional operators and we now have a world class commercial leadership team capable of taking the business to the next level. It is an exciting time in the audio space as the growth in streaming music consumption continues to surge. There are now over one million Australians every month streaming music who do not listen to commercial radio, and this number is growing at a rapid rate.
“Pandora is at the forefront of that growth and it’s important that we educate and enable our clients to benefit from this. With this team in place I feel very confident that we are best positioned to do so.”
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