Cecile van Steenberge has this week joined Pinterest as VP of international enterprise sales.
As highlighted in its recent company earnings, Europe and Rest of world (ROW) markets for Pinterest present a tremendous growth opportunity, with more than 80 per cent of Pinterest users coming from outside North America. In this newly created role, van Steenberge will strengthen Pinterest’s international expansion across EMEA, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific by leading innovative cross-regional strategies.
Van Steenberge joins as Pinterest completes a banner year, delivering its first billion dollar revenue quarter of $1.15 billion in Q4 2024 globally, an 18 per cent increase year-over-year, primarily driven by a big holiday shopping season and AI-powered performance ads. Monthly active users (MAUs) reached another record of 553 million, growing across all reported regions including 7 per cent growth in Europe and 15 per cent in ROW. Due to its strength in the lower funnel, Pinterest grew clicks to advertisers by 90 per cent and recently rolled out Performance+ creative, which helps advertisers create and optimise their ad creatives across formats, including generative AI backgrounds on shopping ads.
Van Steenberge will be based in Dublin and report to Bill Watkins, Pinterest chief revenue officer.
“As we continue to invest in our international business, Cecile will be our cohesive strategic voice, bringing decades of expertise and leadership at the biggest companies around the world. Her proven ability to lead global business teams, develop customer centric strategies and drive significant results in digital advertising revenue are precisely what we need to add further fuel to our international strategy,” said Watkins.
“As highlighted in our recent company earnings, over 80% of Pinterest users come from outside North America, presenting a tremendous growth opportunity. Improving the platform’s monetization across markets, while empowering millions of users to find what they want and take action on it, is what energizes me the most,” van Steenberge added.
Van Steenberge brings decades of leadership experience at Google, General Electric, and Procter & Gamble. In her most recent role as managing director leading Southern Europe Google customers solutions teams at Google, she significantly boosted digital advertising revenue by leveraging ad products, enabling advertisers to reach millions of users effectively. Additionally, she led Google’s Sales AI initiatives across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, demonstrating her strong commitment to innovation and maximising impact. Since last December, van Steenberge is a board member of the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
