The hires reflect a new era of strategic and international growth for the company.
The Independent has announced a series of senior appointments across its commercial team, in addition to the appointment of a new chief financial officer, Richard Langrish.
Langrish is an experienced finance professional with over 25 years of expertise as an international financial executive and management consultant across a variety of sectors. He joins The Independent after 12 years at The Economist, most recently as CFO of client solutions and global events.
Commercial appointments being announced also include:
- Emma Elford becomes The Independent’s first commercial content director. She brings with her 12 years of expertise leading Telegraph Spark, the award-winning content studio. Heading up The Independent’s new branded content team, Independent Ignite, Elford will use her leadership and sales skills to deliver data-driven campaigns and develop new partnerships to bring brands closer to the independent-minded.
- Oliver Wheatley takes on the newly created role of trading director, where he transitions from 13 years working at ESI Media and The Evening Standard. Most recently, he oversaw the creation, curation and optimisation of all agency and barter contracts, working as head of contracts and interim ES digital strategy director.
- Beth Gordon joins The Independent as its trade marketing director, responsible for the company’s commercial-facing marketing and communications. Her wealth of experience includes leading the European business marketing for Spotify and Twitter.
The news follows other recent commercial senior hires, including Lucie McInerney as The Independent’s commercial editor, a new position, which will see McInerney leverage over 10 years of editorial experience to progress the brand’s commercial strategy, and also Blair Tapper as senior vice president U.S., who will drive The Independent’s commercial strategy.
Reporting to Andy Morley, The Independent’s chief digital revenue officer, the expanded senior commercial team will reinforce and further build out the business’s data-driven products and services, audiences and global presence.
Commenting on the hires, Morley said: “We are thrilled to welcome these impressive individuals to The Independent, hires which demonstrate our unwavering commitment to bringing together the industry’s best talent. We’re laser-focused on continuing to lead the way in tech, data and programmatic, whilst diversifying further across our direct business. Through a renewed vigour around our trading book, the launch of the newest branded content team in publishing, Independent Ignite, and delivering a clear commercial vision to market, we firmly believe we can provide something unique: a strong, nimble, standalone proposition in the UK, US and beyond, motivated by detail and powered by scale.”
The senior commercial appointments coincide with a string of additions to the editorial team. Most recently, Nadine White has joined as the title’s first race correspondent, reporting on issues affecting the lives of people of colour and exposing stories of racial injustice. White was the winner of the inaugural Paulette Wilson Windrush Award in November, was listed on the recent Forbes 30 under 30 list and has been nominated for a host of other prizes including the Diversity in Media Awards and the Amnesty Media Awards.
The Independent has also welcomed talented columnists, Cathy Newman, the longstanding Channel 4 news lead, and Konnie Huq, author and television and radio presenter.