Kantar Hires Former Meta, Snap Execs to Boost AI Offer

Kantar has appointed Alvin Bowles Jr. as Chief Client Officer and Ty Ahmad-Taylor as Chief Product Officer, as it looks 'to accelerate the transformative impact of AI-native marketing across its client base.' The new arrivals, both of whom join this month and are based in NYC, previously held VP roles at Meta and Snap.

Bowles (pictured below) has spent the last ten years at Meta, most recently as Vice President of its Global Business Group in the Americas, leading client engagement, advertising sales and strategy; and earlier as VP, Global Partnerships & Business Engineering, delivering scalable solutions across ads, commerce and messaging. Prior to Meta he was CEO of Grab Media, leading the company with Softbank Capital through its acquisition in 2013; and before this he worked in senior business development and integrated marketing roles at Viacom and Time Warner. He began his career at JP Morgan. Bowles holds an MBA from Harvard and a BBA from the University of Michigan - he also serves as a strategic advisor to AIpha, the AI governance organisation.

Ahmad-Taylor (pictured above) brings more than three decades of experience in consumer-facing software, information design, product development leadership, and services innovation. He joins from Snap, Inc. where he was Vice President of Product Growth, leading the Marketing Science, Product Marketing and Solutions Engineering teams. Before Snap he spent five years at Meta as Vice President of Product Marketing, and earlier he was CEO and President of THX Ltd, steering the company into emerging sectors such as virtual reality, mobile devices, and immersive 3D audio. He began his career as a journalist at the New York Times, and has also worked at Samsung, Viacom and Comcast. He holds degrees from Haverford College and Columbia University.

Both men report directly to recently named CEO Paul Zwillenberg, who comments: 'Kantar is leading our industry in transitioning to a fully AI-native marketing environment, from research design and synthetic data to advanced creative and marketing effectiveness measurement. This is a priority for our clients and for our sustained growth. Bringing in two leaders with such experience is a statement of our intent to lead the next generation of marketing.

'Under Ty's leadership we will accelerate the integration of advanced AI capabilities across our portfolio and unleash incredible new functionality for our clients. Alvin has operated at the most senior levels at the intersection of business, technology and marketing. His insights and reputation for client leadership will strengthen how we engage with CEOs and CMOs and help them reinforce the impact brand value has for their wider enterprise.'

Web site: www.kantar.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.