Polly Shute joins as Head of Corporate Partnerships, Lyndal Beeton as Head of Brand Partnerships & Agencies, Obsidian Funmi Adebayo as Corporate Strategy Lead and Emma Pearman (née Kelleher) as Head of Communications and Brand Marketing. All four will work closely with the CEO and Founder of PinkNews Benjamin Cohen, whilst directly reporting to PinkNews COO, Anthony James.
Benjamin Cohen, CEO of PinkNews, said: “I am delighted to welcome Polly, Lyndal, Obsidian and Emma to the PinkNews team. PinkNews is continuing to grow exponentially in the UK and globally. We now reach over 100 million people each month across our website, social platforms and app and we anticipate this to only further increase over the coming years. Serving a large global audience requires a dynamic and talented workforce and we are continuing to expand our team this year with even more hires across every department. Each of these senior hires brings a wealth of valuable experience to the business, aiding us in the next planned level of growth to further inform, inspire and empower our audiences.”
Polly joins PinkNews as Head of Corporate Partnerships. Polly is an experienced Partnership Specialist with a passion for equity, diversity and inclusion. Polly has been consulting in the not-for-profit and commercial sectors following a successful career as a Brand and Fundraising Director. Recent assignments include The Royal Society of Medicine where she has led the development of a multi-year programme focused on tackling healthcare inequalities. Polly previously served on the Board of Pride in London where she led fundraising and partnerships for four years. Polly is the co-founder of Out and About LGBTQIA, a platform that creates and curates events for LGBTQIA women and those who are non-binary. In 2022 the platform will launch Out & Wild, a Festival for Queer women and non-binary people in Wales. Polly also sits on several inclusion committees, including NEXUS and Trans in the City. Polly will initially be working at PinkNews for one day per week until later this year.
Lyndal joins PinkNews as its new Head of Partnerships & Agencies from The Chelsea Magazine Company, where she most recently served as its Advertisement & Partnerships Director. Lyndal brings a wealth of experience and expertise to PinkNews in developing high-value brand collaborations and advertising partnerships. As part of her new full-time role, Lyndal will be spearheading the company’s commercial growth and partnerships expansion strategy by supercharging the brand’s multi-platform partnership offering paving the way for more brands to creatively and effectively engage with the global LGBTQ+ community and its allies at scale, says the company.
Obsidian joins PinkNews from gal-dem, where they most recently served as Head of Commercial. Obsidian is the founder of Olorun, a multimedia experimental production company, home to the Black Monologues podcast, alongside writing for The Africa Report. They additionally sit on the steering committee of the Black Queer Travel Guide and hold membership in the Common Futures Conversation at Chatham House. In 2019/20, they also successfully embarked on an unassisted, solo cycle across America in aid of Macmillian. They also come with previous experience in M&A and Sales from Rothschild, Zenith Bank UK and Tellimer, as well as journalist experience from The Africa Report. In their new role as Corporate Strategy Lead at PinkNews, they will identify, implement and oversee creative solutions to support the strategic growth of the business.
Emma joins PinkNews in the newly created role of Head of Communications and Brand Marketing. Emma was most recently working as a Freelance Brand and Communication consultant. Before this Emma held roles as Head of Global Marketing at Miller Harris and Deputy Communications and Publicity Director at Condé Nast Britain. In her new full-time role at PinkNews, Emma will be responsible for establishing and executing a fully integrated communications strategy across the business to amplify PinkNews to a growing and diverse global audience.
Polly, Lyndal, Obsidian and Emma join PinkNews with immediate effect.
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