Blippar bolsters US leadership team with two new hires

Carla Henderson appointed as VP Brand Partnerships and Jack Hallahan as EVP Partnerships.

LONDON and NEW YORK – 4th January 2021 – Blippar, the leading Augmented Reality (AR) technology company, has today announced the appointments of Carla Henderson as VP Brand Partnerships and Jack Hallahan as EVP Partnerships as part of the company’s global growth strategy. Blippar continues to scale its reach and innovate its client offering to address a market where AR is forecast to reach 72.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.

Henderson and Hallahan will report to CEO Faisal Galaria and join Blippar’s established commercial team in the US, working closely with Keith Curtin, US Chief Commercial Officer. The new hires follow a successful year for Blippar in which its US team licensed Blippar’s content creation platform “Blippbuilder'' and through its in-house studio, developed AR experiences for high-profile global brands including Colgate, Dr Pepper, Mucinex, Campari, Fossil and Truist Bank. 

Henderson has extensive partnership experience and an in-depth understanding of Blippar and the opportunities it is bringing to brands, having previously built the West Coast partnerships team at Blippar in 2017. Following her re-location from Los Angeles to London, Carla is returning to Blippar to work with clients in both the US and the UK. Before her new role at Blippar, Carla held positions at LiveSmart, Vibrant Media and True(X).

Hallahan has over two decades of partnership experience derived from roles in global creative agencies, Silicon Valley start-ups, and high-end creative firms, with expertise spanning across mobile marketing, social media, QR codes, brand identity and package design. Previously at creative ad tech platform Celtra, Jack was SVP of Partnerships where he grew sales six-fold in his territory. More recently, he was VP Partnerships at creative management platform Thunder, which is backed by LiveRamp, where he introduced an account based model to the sales team that delivered a 200% increase in revenue. 

Faisal Galaria, CEO of Blippar commented: “Seismic changes in how we live over the last year have called for businesses to find new ways to communicate and engage with their audiences. These changes have seen appetite for AR-based solutions significantly increase, which is reflected in Blippar’s incredible growth in 2020. We are thrilled to have Carla and Jack join our team to enable us to meet soaring demand for our industry-leading AR creation platform. Their wealth of knowledge in developing and building client partnerships will be invaluable in delivering on our ambitious global growth plans in the year ahead.”

Commenting on her appointment, Carla Henderson, VP Brand Partnerships at Blippar said: “I am thrilled to be back on the Blippar team. The company is a true pioneer in AR and uniquely placed to be a market leader as the technology is now entering the mainstream. With so many new clients on-board, I'm excited to help them use Blippar’s technology to stand out from their competitors and meet their consumer engagement goals in highly creative, and unique ways.”

Jack Hallahan, EVP Partnerships at Blippar commented: “Audience engagement now calls for innovation more than ever before, making it an exciting time for AR technology. I’ve had my eye on Blippar for a long time, so I’m looking forward to using my broad range of experience to help its clients leverage AR in their businesses.”

Blippar is the AR creation platform of choice for global brands and agencies with current clients including OnePlus, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Lavazza, Savvas Learning Company, and the US Postal Service. 

Published in MarTech Series & AiThority.