Appointment of two Non-Executive Directors

10 December 2019

S4 CAPITAL PLC

("S⁴Capital" or the "Company")

Appointment of two Non-Executive Directors

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L) the new era/new age digital advertising and marketing services company, announces the appointment of two new Non-Executive Directors to the S⁴Capital board to enhance governance and diversity at the fast-growing business. The appointments mean S⁴Capital's board is now equally comprised of Executive and Non-Executive directors. 

Naoko Okumoto joins as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect. Naoko is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Amber Bridge Partners, a strategic investment and consulting firm specialising in cross-border business development, investment and operations between the United States and Asia Pacific. Naoko serves as a Partner and Executive Adviser to Z Corporation, a blockchain-focused fund owned by Z Holdings Corporation (the Softbank subsidiary formerly known as Yahoo Japan Inc.) She has previously been an Executive Vice President and Board member at N.Avenue, part of Z Corporation; and an Executive Vice President and Board member for CoinDesk Japan. Naoko was a founding partner at World Innovation Lab, a global VC firm, and has worked as Vice President of International Product and Business Management at Yahoo Inc.

Margaret Ma Connolly, who also joins as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect, is Chief Executive Officer, Asia, of Informa Markets, the exhibitions, content and data solutions arm of Informa, overseeing its businesses in China, Japan, Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar. Margaret joined UBM in 2008 as Managing Director, China and Vice President, Asia, before its combination with Informa in 2018. She started the wholly owned business in China to spearhead development in key sectors and grew the business through partnerships. Previous senior roles include General Manager of TNT Express Worldwide, based in Shanghai, and Assistant General Manager of Global Sources. She also held senior leadership positions in various technology and media companies in US and China.

Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, commented: "Naoko and Margaret add Silicon Valley and Chinese know how and wisdom, which are two critically important areas of expertise for S4 Capital's future. Between them they bring years of experience in strategic international business development, investment and portfolio management with a focus on fast-growing digital businesses operating at the critical nexus of business between North America and Asia Pacific. They will help to strengthen our commitment to diversity on the S⁴Capital board and support independent governance, and their appointment takes the number of Non-Executive Directors on the S⁴Capital board to seven, half of the board. I'm delighted that these two talented individuals will be bringing their unique expertise to our board and welcome them to the company."

Naoko Okumoto commented: "My work has been focused on helping support fast-growing digital businesses achieve scale through the application of expertise and cross-border support. I'm thrilled to be joining the board of S⁴Capital and I believe my expertise in helping businesses in North America and Asia Pacific connect and thrive together will be of great value to this growing business."

Margaret Ma Connolly added: "Asia is at the forefront of digital transformation and China is actively embracing the innovations to power the growth engine. I'm really looking forward to bringing my skills and network in business development in China to support S⁴Capital as it increases its global footprint and working alongside the other members of this talented and highly diverse board."

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About S⁴Capital 

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company, established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.

Its strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved initially by integrating leading businesses in three practice areas: first-party data, digital content, digital media planning and buying, along with an emphasis on "faster, better, cheaper" executions in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.

Digital is by far the fastest-growing segment of the advertising market. S⁴Capital estimates that in 2018 digital accounted for approximately 45% or $225 billion of total global advertising spend of $500 billion (excluding about $400 billion of trade support, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform), and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately 55%.

S⁴Capital combined with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company led by Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, in July 2018, and with MightyHive, the market-leading programmatic solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin, in December 2018. 

In April 2019, MightyHive merged with ProgMedia to expand operations into Latin America and MediaMonks acquired film studio Caramel Pictures to expand content studio capabilities. In June 2019, MediaMonks announced a planned merger with Australia-based BizTech, a leading marketing transformation and customer experience company. In August 2019, MediaMonks merged with Amsterdam-based digital influencer marketing agency IMA. In October 2019, MediaMonks merged with Firewood Marketing, the largest digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley, that was recently ranked, along with MediaMonks, as one of the fastest growing agencies by Adweek, and MightyHive merged with award-winning UK-based digital analytics, biddable media and data science company ConversionWorks and South Korea-based data and analytics consultancy Datalicious Korea. In November 2019 MediaMonks merged with Delhi-based content creation and production company WhiteBalance.

Victor, Wesley, Pete, Christopher and Peter Rademaker (formerly Chief Financial Officer of MediaMonks, now Chief Financial Officer of S⁴Capital), all joined the S⁴Capital Board as Directors. The S⁴Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan and Scott Spirit.

 Following the fundraising for Firewood, the company has a market capitalization of approximately £850 million ($1.1 billion) and around 2000 people in 26 countries, across the Americas, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million "shell" company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left. Today its market capitalisation is £12 billion. Prior to that he was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for nine years.