Adtech platform Linkby has announced the appointment of Pedestrian Group’s Publisher Vanessa Lawrence to the newly-created role of 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 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.”
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 $5 million 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.
