Acast For A Decade: Voices Behind the Company
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John Harrobin and Samantha Skey join Acast board as company strengthens commitment to growing US market share
John Harrobin and Samantha Skey join Acast board as company strengthens commitment to growing US market share
2022.05.17
Acast, the world’s leading independent podcast company, confirmed the appointment of John Harrobin and Samantha Skey to its Board at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) yesterday. Harrobin, a former Chief Marketing Officer at both Amazon-owned Audible and Verizon, was also elected Chairman of the Board.
Harrobin and Skey — who is CEO of SHE Media, the USA's largest network of independent publishers who publish and produce lifestyle content — are the first US-based appointments to the Acast Board, underlining and strengthening the company’s commitment to growing its market share in the US and surrounding regions.
As announced in its first quarter financial report yesterday, Acast continues to perform strongly in the US — with net sales for Q1 2022 up 107% versus the same period last year. Harrobin and Skey’s appointments follow Georgina Holt’s move from the UK to become Managing Director for the Americas earlier this year.
Harrobin has extensive experience in both the media and tech industries, and today leads the consumer division at Frontier Communications. He brings deep domain expertise in spoken media and digital customer acquisition, and served for several years as a Board Member for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), maintaining a large network of contacts in the American media industry.
Skey brings extensive experience and knowledge from digital advertising-financed media operations and has served as a Board member of both the Ad Council and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Ross Adams, Acast CEO, said: “Having John and Sam as part of the board gives us two more people with a real wealth of knowledge of the US market and beyond, as well as such solid experience in extremely relevant industries. It’s our mission to continue expanding into new markets globally, but North America is an important focus for us — and we’re confident we can continue to take market share here.
“I’d also like to place on record our thanks to Andrea for her leadership in guiding Acast through some very decisive and eventful years.”