Industry leaders join LEAP Media Solutions executive team

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LEAP Media Solutions has announced the addition of several industry leaders to its executive team, as well as one promotion.  These appointments are designed to strengthen three areas of core competency: 1) enterprise data management, modeling and analytics, 2) audience, revenue and engagement strategy development, and 3) the identification and execution of marketing best practices under a shared resource management approach.

Wendy Hurwitz, most recently the vice president of audience at Sightline Media Group, will join LEAP in the newly created role of chief strategy officer. From 1994 until 2015, Hurwitz worked for Gannett in a variety of senior executive roles overseeing database management, email marketing, e-commerce, contesting and social media strategies.  While there, she architected the ADM (automated direct marketing) program, which was a pioneering approach that leveraged campaign automation technology, variable data printing and analytics to support audience development for Gannett's then 80+ markets.  

Prior to that, she worked at Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations on accounts such as Hardee's, Seagram's and the Georgia Special Olympics.  She holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Emory University and an MBA from the University of South Florida.  She is a Certified eMarketer (CeM) and a published author of the book, "An Executives Guide to Managing Email."  

At LEAP, Hurwitz will lead the agency services team, including campaign design and execution, creative development, marketing automation processes, and strategy consulting as called upon by the client community. She begins her new role Sept. 12 and will be based in northern Virginia.

In addition, Wendy Reeves, most recently the regional director of audience - East Region at McClatchy, joins LEAP in the newly created role of vice president, head of accounts.  Reeves began her newsmedia career at The News & Observer in 2003, where she had responsibility for direct marketing, subscriber acquisition and retention, and then earned a series of promotions resulting in her current role overseeing audience strategy for the eight markets comprising McClatchy's East region.  

In 2008, Reeves was honored by the Newspaper Association of America in its "20 under 40" feature that recognizes those who have proven themselves as change agents within their companies an the industry.  She has been a contributor to the MAAX Users Group, and has served on the board of the Mid-Atlantic Circulation Managers Association and various NAA committees. She is a 2000 graduate of the University of Virginia.

At LEAP, Reeves will oversee LEAP's client management team, including program design, implementation, vendor management and marketing plan development and execution. She begins Sept. 14 and will be based in the Raleigh, N.C., office.

Finally, Michael Speirs has been promoted to vice president, integrations. Since 2013, Speirs has served as director of data and analytics with responsibility for architecting LEAP's technology infrastructure, designing various integrations with third-party platforms and engineering the company's ETL processes to support the seamless delivery of data assets into (and out of) the core system, MAAX.  

He is a 1994 graduate of the University of Connecticut, and holds graduate certificates in data mining and applications, and computer programming from Stanford and the University of New Haven, respectively.  His promotion is effective immediately.

LEAP Media Solutions, Hurwitz, Reeves, Speirs
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