Marketbridge Names New CEO

Consulting and marketing firm Marketbridge has appointed Bob Ray as its new Chief Executive Officer, succeeding John Shomaker, who will remain actively involved as an advisor.

Five US-based companies - COMM, fama PR, Intelisent, MarketBridge and Quarry - came together in September 2024 under the Marketbridge name, with an offer including strategy consulting, marketing and comms, data science, analytics and technology solutions. The combined company employs almost 400 people, with headquarters in Bethseda, MD, and offices in four other US cities plus Canada and the UK.

Ray (pictured) previously led Dentsu division Merkle B2B, and has been a Board Director of Marketbridge since March. He served as President and CEO at DWA and gyro, now both part of Merkle, for a total of seventeen years, and left Merkle in 2023. Most recently he worked as Executive Director and Strategic Advisor at B2B marketing company Rabinovici & Associates.

Shomaker has led the firm through the merger during a three-and-a-half-year stint as CEO. He spent thirteen years at the original MarketBridge, starting in 1996 after nearly a decade at consulting firms. Since 2009 he has worked in divisional CEO and group COO roles at Zenovia, and SVP roles at Cision.

The firm says its next phase will be 'to expand its role as 'a new type of go-to-market operating partner, one that integrates strategy, insight, data, orchestration, and activation, with emerging AI-enabled intelligence layers.'

The company is online at www.marketbridge.com .