News America Marketing Signals Next Phase of Strategic Transformation with 6 Senior Leadership Appointments

News America Marketing, the premier marketer and influencer for online and offline shoppers in the U.S. and Canada, today announced six senior leadership appointments to drive its ongoing transformation. The appointments include the naming of its first Chief Growth Officer and SVP Head of Product, as well a new Chief Retail and Merchandising Officer, SVP of Strategy & Corporate Development, VP of Insights and Strategy, and VP of Communications and Creative.

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Zack Storer, Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Digital, Data, Emerging Technologies at News America Marketing (Photo: Business Wire)

"Today’s executive leadership announcement is a major step in our company’s transformational journey,” said Martin Garofalo, News America Marketing’s CEO. “We are structuring our organization for growth to ensure we can respond to the fast-changing needs of our clients, shoppers and industry partners. The executives named today are proven leaders and understand our clear mandate for change, and I look forward to partnering with them as we address the needs of the marketplace.”

Zack Storer, who most recently served as Head of Digital Technologies at The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR), will fill the newly created role of Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Digital, Data, Emerging Technologies at News America Marketing. Storer is uniquely qualified for this role, bringing with him 25 years of technology and executive leadership experience as cofounder of Kroger’s Digital transformation and a thought leader across the company’s Strategy, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Retail Operations, and Digital divisions.

In his new role, Storer will work with the executive leadership team at News America Marketing and report to CEO, Martin Garofalo. He will focus on accelerating growth and digitizing News America Marketing’s networks by building and leveraging transformational technologies, and collaborating with talent across the company.

“We are excited to welcome Zack to our executive team,” remarked Garofalo. “News America Marketing’s footprint in the digital space has grown significantly over the last several years. Zack has extensive experience that will not only provide a huge boost to our digital presence but will, more importantly, benefit our clients through his deep industry knowledge.”

News America Marketing has selected Tracey Koller to become its new Chief Retail and Merchandising Officer, starting January 1st, 2018. Koller, a retail leader with more than 25 years of Core Merchandising, Retail Operations, Supply Chain, Expense Optimization and Transformation Office leadership experience, will reimagine News America Marketing’s retail relationships around value creation and product delivery as well as lead the Field organization. Koller will report to the Chief Executive Officer and work collaboratively with the Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Growth Officer, and Head of Product to reinforce News America Marketing’s position as a valuable strategic partner to its retail clients.

After a 17-year career at Target (NYSE:TGT), Koller has been engaged full-time with Whole Foods Market, in support of their transformational efforts, for the last 2 ½ years. Koller first joined Target in 1998 and held several purchasing and leadership positions at the company, most recently as a VP-level Merchandising Operations leader of the Supply Chain Transformation Office and Expense Optimization. Her successful track record in leading Target through enterprise-wide, disruptive initiatives from building a franchised business model to expense optimization delivery to the merchandising transformation of integrating the physical and digital supply chain and organizational model has helped her earn numerous accolades.

“Tracey is a skilled merchant with broad experience in retail and a long track record of leadership excellence,” said Garofalo. “I believe Tracey’s deep understanding of our clients and the industry, coupled with her proven ability to drive results, will strengthen our leadership team as we strive to capture future growth opportunities.”

As part of its mission to transform today’s shopping experience by creating new communication channels between shoppers, retailers and brands, News America Marketing has hired Yuval Refua as Senior Vice President, Head of Product. In this newly created role, Refua will be accountable for creating unique meaningful digital experiences that present consumers with information, media and incentives in a timely contextual manner to help them make better purchase decisions. This role will report to the Chief Growth Officer and work closely with Engineering, Marketing and Sales to deliver products that will position News America Marketing as the leading partner for brands looking to establish a personal connection with their shoppers.

Refua was formerly the Head of Digital Payments and Director of New Product Development at American Express (NYSE:AXP) where he reimagined the company’s digital commerce experiences by creating Amex Express Checkout, launching Amex Token Services, introducing the first financial bank Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Messenger integration as well as launching a card refresher capability to increase annual charge volume by $2.5B. Other highlights include creating and running the Amex Garage and managing multi-level, high-grossing partnerships with 400 leading merchants like Delta (NYSE:DAL), Neiman Marcus, Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Amazon, Uber and Airbnb.

“At News America Marketing, we believe in a world where digital and physical converge. Investment in new product development is a key driver in realizing this vision. Yuval’s appointment as Head of Product comes at a critical time and we are confident that with his award-winning work and vast experience, we will continue to be at the frontline of introducing innovative products that enhance the way we shop,” added Garofalo.

Peter Moustakerski has joined News America Marketing as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development and will be responsible for framing corporate strategy, assessing business development opportunities, and exploring new strategic capabilities. Moustakerski was previously engaged as an independent consultant by News America Marketing, helping the company understand the fast-evolving business landscape.

Moustakerski comes with 25 years of experience ranging from strategy management consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton to holding senior executive positions in financial services at UBS Wealth Management and Bridgewater Associates to launching two startups in the food manufacturing and retail space. Moustakerski is also a contributing writer and researcher with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) where, over the past 15 years, he has conducted numerous research and thought-leadership projects and written several white papers.

"At News America Marketing, we are in an excellent strategic position to combine our high-scale analog media and incentive networks with digital innovation and data-rich capabilities that touch shoppers at every stage of their journey. During this exciting time of disruption and transformation in our space, I am excited to welcome Peter to our leadership team, and look forward to the unique opportunity we have to transform our company and create significant shareholder value," said Garofalo.

Ethan Rapp joins News America Marketing as Vice President of Insights and Strategy. In this position, Rapp will be responsible for leveraging insights to shape the company’s product and innovation agendas, lead its point of view on program measurement, and author the foundational shopper-centric story that guides its selling organization. Rapp will structure and manage an extensive team supporting Shopper and Program Insights as well as Client Insights. Rapp will be based in New York City and report to the Chief Marketing Officer.

Most recently, Rapp served as Head of Solutions Consulting at Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) (previously TubeMogul) where he was responsible for driving revenue by creating innovative media solutions for a variety of business problems. Rapp led the hands-on building of cross media planning tools, television manufacturing data, syndicated data and traditional market research techniques for the company.

“Ethan brings more than 20 years of experience in consumer insights, advanced program measurement and shopper understanding, and will be instrumental in driving business growth,” said Garofalo. “At News America Marketing, we continue to invest in the understanding of the shopper and the shopping landscape. I’m confident that with Ethan’s contributions, we will be able to turn data-driven insights into actionable strategies.”

Bryan McCleary joins News America Marketing as Vice President of Communications and Creative. In this role, McCleary will lead Integrated Communications that includes the Public Relations, Design, and Content Development teams for News America Marketing and the SmartSource brand. McCleary will be in charge of developing and implementing communications and marketing strategies that will enhance the company’s reputation and drive stronger connections between News America Marketing and its clients, prospective clients, industry partners, employees, and prospective employees. McCleary will be based in Cincinnati and will report to the Chief Marketing Officer.

McCleary’s career has spanned more than 20 years in Personal Health Care, Oral Care, Baby Care, and Household Care at Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG). In his most recent role at the company as Leader of Global Company Communications, McCleary provided transformational communication strategies, support, resources and training to accelerate company growth. Prior to Procter and Gamble, McCleary served as Press Secretary to U.S. Senator John Glenn.

“We are delighted to have Bryan join our team as Vice President of Communications and Creative,” Garofalo commented. “News America Marketing has been on a transformational journey. We look forward to tapping into Bryan’s unique know-how of the consumer packaged goods industry and expertise in the communications discipline as part of our efforts to meaningfully build the reputation of News America Marketing and its product network.”

About News America Marketing

News America Marketing (NAM) is the premier marketing partner of some of the world’s most well-known brands, and its broad network of shopper media, incentive platforms and custom merchandising services influences the purchasing decisions of online and offline shoppers across the U.S. and Canada. News America Marketing’s marketing solutions are available via multiple distribution channels, including publications, in stores and online, primarily under the SmartSource brand name and through the Checkout 51 mobile application. News America Marketing, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at newsamerica.com.

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