The leadership appointments have been all around this week, with new leaders joining or moving in a new setup. As the world adjusts to the post- pandemic situations, we bring you the appointment and recruitment round-ups from last week that happened along the way :

Pearson announces Ali Bebo's appointment as CHRO

Pearson announced this week that Ali Bebo has been appointed Chief Human Resources Officer, taking over from Anna Vikstrom Persson who stepped down in November. Bebo is Pearson's third CHRO since the position was created in 2013.

She joins Pearson from medical technology company Hologic, where she served as Global Head of Human Resources. Bebo's tenure at Hologic was notable for increasing employee engagement by over three times and introducing diversity into the executive leadership team, going from zero women or ethnically diverse leaders in 2013 to one-third women and diverse leaders in 2021.

Prior to Hologic, Bebo headed talent resources and talent management for US retail and apparel company ANN INC.

Jong-Hee Han to lead Samsung's newly merged SET Division

As part of an internal reorganisation of its businesses, Samsung Electronics also reshuffles its top management. The company will have two new CEOs leading two new divisions.

A new SET Division that includes mobile, TVs, and consumer electronics, will be led by Jong-Hee (JH) Han, who has been promoted to Vice Chairman and CEO while Device Solutions, which is the semiconductors business, will be led by is Kyehyun Kyung, previously CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. 

With this reshuffling, Samsung Electronics looks to strengthen its business competitiveness and be better prepared for its next phase of growth.

Alibaba Group announces CFO succession, Toby Xu to replace veteran Maggie Wu as CFO

Alibaba group announced this week that the e-commerce giant’s current Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Toby Xu will succeed long-standing CFO Maggie Wu effective April 1, 2022. It is the second major reshuffle since 2015,  when Jack Ma passed the torch as CEO to Daniel Zhang and subsequently appointed him chairman in 2019.

Xu joined Alibaba in July 2018, coming from PricewaterhouseCoopers  where he was a partner for 11 years. He was appointed Deputy Chief Financial Officer in July 2019. He serves as a director of Sun Art Retail Group, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings and Red Star Macalline Group. Toby graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, with a bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1996. He is a member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Dentsu International appoints a new Chief Strategy Officer

Dentsu International has announced the appointment of Alex Hesz as global chief strategy officer. This appointment comes off the back of Dentsu’s second quarter of consecutive growth which includes client wins and expansions including Manulife and Kering. Alex would be tasked with providing strategic leadership across the business, partnering with global CEO Wendy Clark and the Dentsu International Executive team starting in 2022. 

Previously, Alex served as Global CSO to DDB Worldwide where his bludgeoning client portfolio included Google, Samsung, Unilever, Mars, Lloyds Banking Group, BlackRock and Facebook (Meta).

AcuityAds appoints a new CFO

AcuityAds has announced the appointment of Elliot Muchnik as Chief Finance Officer of the company. Elliot is a passionate, accomplished and strategic leader with 25 years’ experience in the financial services and wealth management industry. Previously, He was serving independent wealth management firm Richardson Wealth Ltd. as CFO and corporate secretary since 2007 and has also worked with BMO Nesbitt Burns in the senior vice president capacity.

At AcuityAds, Elliot would be succeeding interim CFO Tatiana Kresling and is tasked with taking the digital advertising company into new markets and consolidate their position.

Tal Hayek, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AcuityAds told stockstelegraph.com,

“On behalf of the entire AcuityAds team, I welcome Elliot as our CFO and look forward to his contributions. His extensive financial, operational, and M&A experience make him the ideal choice to help drive AcuityAds’ continued growth and profitability as we continue to advance our illumin [advertising platform], which is revolutionizing the programmatic advertising industry. I would also like to recognize and thank Tatiana for her outstanding work as Interim CFO.”