• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 2, 2021

Brandtech group You & Mr Jones on Wednesday announced 2020 and Q1 2021 revenue gains that led to the group making several new hires in recent months, including its first chief technology officer.

You & Mr Jones grew 27.1% net revenue from organic growth in 2020, and started 2021 with 34.3% organic growth in Q1.

"Our success has been built on a combination of talent and technology," said You & Mr Jones founder David Jones, adding that the new hires are "extremely significant" to fostering and maintaining positive momentum. 

That momentum includes the recent launch of You & Mr Jones Media, led by founding partner and former Mindshare Global CEO Nick Emery.

The new division is set to spend $300 million to build a new media model for brands by putting them back in control of their media.

The group also raised $260 million at a $1.36 billion valuation in 2020.

To support the growth, You & Mr Jones made several hew hires. U.S.-based Will Luttrell -- founder and CEO of Amino, which uses blockchain for transparency in media payments -- is joining You & Mr Jones as partner and CTO. Luttrell is best known for founding Integral Ad Science and serving as CTO.

Luttrell is recognized as a global authority in the marketing technology space. As CTO for You & Mr Jones based in the group’s New York headquarters, he will focus on connecting and accelerating the company’s technology roadmap.

Rebecca Sykes, based in London, takes the role of associate partner after more than nine years with Mofilm, a global community of more than 10,000 content creators that You & Mr Jones acquired in June 2015. Sykes most recently served the company as global CEO.

In her new group role, Sykes will lead client growth across the technology and automotive sectors.

Sykes is passionate about diversity and brings experience in the development of innovative brand content creation models. At Mofilm she fostered a belief in ‘Many Voices’ making better business sense, the more diverse and interesting those voices are, the better the creative solutions they collectively uncover.

Automotive has been a recurrent theme in Sykes career. She launched Chevrolet’s social media presence across Europe and developed award-winning crowdsourced content for the Super Bowl.

Karima Otmani, based in Paris, was promoted to associate partner and Group Deputy CFO. She joined the group in July 2019 following a global role at Etam. Prior, Otmani worked at the luxury group Richemont. Otmani’s promotion reflects the expansion in the group’s operational capabilities as it continues to scale and grow.

You & Mr Jones' portfolio of companies includes 55, a global digital data company; Pinterest, which focuses on visual search; Oliver, supports in-house digital marketing capabilities for brands; Jivox, a cloud-based, data-driven platform for delivering personalized digital advertising and marketing experiences, and more.