Programmatic advertising platform Hawk has appointed former Yahoo executive James Fenn as enterprise business director as it builds its UK commercial team around demand for omnichannel media buying.
The Azerion-owned business said Fenn will focus on developing direct relationships with advertisers, enterprise clients, and independent agencies in the UK.
He joins from Yahoo, where he led its client direct team and most recently relaunched the company’s independent agency group. His earlier roles include senior positions at Verizon, AOL, and Microsoft.
Fenn brings almost two decades of advertising technology experience to the role, with a background spanning agency relationships, direct advertiser sales, and programmatic media.
The appointment comes as Hawk develops its proposition around multiple digital channels within one demand-side platform. Its offering includes digital out-of-home, audio, connected television, and other programmatic inventory.
Audrey Boisumeau, vice-president of enterprise solutions for the UK and US at Hawk, said: “As we continue to accelerate our growth in the UK, James will play a key role in strengthening our agency relationships, as well as helping to scale our enterprise offering.”
The commercial strategy reflects a wider shift in advertising technology. Brands and agencies increasingly distribute budgets across a larger number of digital formats, creating demand for tools capable of planning, buying, and measuring activity across channels rather than requiring separate platforms for each medium.
Connected television and digital out-of-home have extended programmatic buying into environments historically purchased through different processes, while digital audio has added another channel competing for brand budgets.
For demand-side platforms, that creates both an opportunity and a product challenge. Adding inventory can make a platform more useful to advertisers, but its value depends on whether users can manage channels consistently, measure performance, and control duplication across audiences.
Enterprise sales teams therefore have a different task from conventional software account management. Large advertisers and agencies may already operate multiple advertising technology products, data systems, measurement partners, and direct media relationships.
Winning additional spending requires demonstrating how a platform fits into that existing stack rather than simply offering access to more inventory.
Fenn’s background across media owners, agencies, and advertising technology gives Hawk experience across several parts of that buying chain. His remit also includes independent agencies, which may require sophisticated technology without having the same internal resources as the largest global networks.
Azerion acquired Hawk in 2023 as part of a broader advertising-platform strategy. Hawk’s demand-side technology gives advertisers and agencies access to inventory across multiple formats through one buying environment.
The commercial task is to convert that technology breadth into larger and longer-lasting client relationships. Channel coverage alone does not guarantee platform adoption if agencies find measurement fragmented or if campaign teams continue relying on specialist products for individual formats.
Programmatic advertising also continues to face concerns around fraud, automated traffic, measurement quality, transparency, and whether impressions translate into genuine audience attention.
Hawk’s proposition increasingly rests on combining channel access with planning and measurement capabilities. Its own product materials describe a platform spanning digital screens through a single buying environment, including tools for audience planning and reporting.
Enterprise clients will still judge that proposition through campaign performance rather than the number of channels available. As buying consolidates, platforms need to demonstrate that omnichannel management produces better decisions rather than simply placing more inventory behind one interface.
The appointment strengthens the senior commercial resource responsible for making that case in the UK. Fenn will be tasked with developing advertiser and agency relationships as Hawk and Azerion continue to expand their enterprise advertising proposition.
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