Whalar Announces Three Senior Hires As Company Continues Significant Growth

Industry leaders Gaz Alushi, Jamie Gutfreund, Marco Bertozzi join executive team

Leading global creator commerce company Whalar today announced the addition of three new hires to its executive team:

• Gaz Alushi, President of Measurement and Analytics;
• Jamie Gutfreund, Global Chief Marketing Officer; and
• Marco Bertozzi, President of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

The new hires come as Whalar expands its diverse and internationally-based senior team in a time of continued growth for the company. Whalar is the only company in the emerging creator economy to directly manage creator talent and brand partnerships while building innovative proprietary technology. In addition, Whalar is the preferred partner for all five major platforms, TikTok, Meta, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube.

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All three senior hires will report to Whalar Global CEO, Rob Horler. On these appointments, Rob said: “We have unique ambitions to continue to grow significantly and be a leading force in the creator economy. To do that, we need to hire smart, and bringing on expertise in measurement, marketing, and sales, allows us to deliver on our must-see creative capabilities. We’re excited to have Gaz, Jamie, and Marco part of the Whalar family.”

Gaz Alushi most recently led the Global Measurement Product Research and Development team at Snap, Inc. and has had extensive experience in measurement and analytics at Facebook, IRI, and Millward Brown. At Snap, he led a team focused on building privacy-first deterministic measurement solutions and was responsible for the creation and evolution of advertiser measurement solutions including reach verification, brand and sales lift methodologies, and multi-touch attribution with partners including Kantar, Nielsen, Neustar, and Foursquare. Prior to this, Gaz worked to help build out new measurement solutions at Facebook in partnership with Datalogix (Oracle) and Nielsen to help advertisers accurately measure the ROI of their campaigns.

As the first President of Measurement and Analytics at Whalar, Gaz will be responsible for building its measurement and analytics practice, designing solutions to help the company’s partners understand the impact of their marketing initiatives with Whalar.

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Jamie Gutfreund previously served as Chief Experience Officer for Hasbro and Chief Marketing Officer for MGA Entertainment, a $9B privately-held titan of the toy industry. While leading marketing at MGA, Jamie’s forward-thinking approach led to the creation of a wildly successful branded Roblox game, the creation of a virtual TikTok influencer, the establishment of an industry-leading Amazon brand storefront, and launching a Direct-to-Consumer fan merchandise and collectible site. Jamie has also created original award-winning content for broadcast television and YouTube.

Gutfreund has additionally served in leadership roles at Microsoft and Expedia and has worked with some of the top advertising and talent agencies in the world, including WPP, Saatchi & Saatchi and Creative Artists Agency. She is a board member for Tubular Labs, the premier cross-channel measurement and analytics solution for social video; a strategic advisor for Anzu.io, a programmatic in-game advertising platform.

Marco Bertozzi has held various C-level senior roles at VivaKi and Publicis Media and served as Vice President of Sales EMEA at Spotify, where he was instrumental in the streaming audio advertising renaissance and won Sales Team of the Year in 2020. A regular contributor to industry press and publications, Marco is a regular presenter, contributor, judge, and commentator at conferences and industry events across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In addition, Marco is a strong advocate for progress within the industry using his positions to mentor and support groups such as Creative Equals, Adlondoncalling and is an Ambassador of Speakers for Schools, a charity supporting underprivileged children.

Whalar is at a transformative moment, recently hiring 155+ people (and counting). Whalar is also one of the original companies with access to TikTok API. In addition, Whalar recently opened an office in Dubai and is the first creator company to win two Cannes Lions.

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