Adweek Announces Updates to Its Executive Leadership Team

David Saabye promoted to Chief Product Officer • Jessica Sejeck promoted to SVP, Audience Development and Marketing • Carol Wells promoted to Lead Creative Director • Heide Palermo promoted to Head of Community

New York, NY, Feb. 22, 2021 – Adweek, the leading source of news and insights covering marketing, media and technology, today announced changes to its executive leadership team, in a continuing effort to best grow and serve its audience.

David Saabye has been named Adweek’s Chief Product Officer. Saabye joined the team in 2018 as SVP, Customer Experience, charged with implementing a series of large-scale projects that transformed the Adweek online experience. His team was instrumental in the success of the brand’s professional education tools, including webinars and the Institute of Brand Marketing, as well as Adweek’s pivot into virtual events in 2020. As Chief Product Officer, Saabye will lead efforts to develop new product features and experience for Adweek+ subscribers and integrate current and future acquisitions into the Adweek product set.

Jessica Sejeck has been named SVP, Audience Development and Marketing. Since joining Adweek in 2017, Sejeck has been instrumental in the eightfold growth of Adweek’s proprietary audience database. In 2018, Sejeck launched Adweek’s membership model, which has grown the paid subscriber base by 190%. In 2019, she was put in charge of the newly merged audience development and marketing departments, a team whose efforts drove registrations for Adweek’s rapidly expanding event schedule. In 2020, Adweek hosted over 50 events with over 90,000 registrations. In her new role, Sejeck will continue to focus on further driving subscription growth in collaboration with the editorial and product teams and will oversee the creative services department.

Carol Wells has been promoted to Lead Creative Director. An award-winning Creative Director, Wells has been with Adweek since 2011, and most recently served as the company’s Group Creative Director. During that time, she led the in-house creative agency responsible for design efforts across corporate, sales, events and marketing. In the past five years she’s played a critical role in establishing the rebrand of Adweek Live Events as a best-in-class visual leader. In her newly created role, Wells will have oversight of creative and design across Adweek’s growing global business. She will continue to lead creative ideation across the organization and integrate brand creative across all channels while driving innovation in design, animation and brand voice. Wells will champion creativity within and beyond Adweek, while attracting and nurturing the best creative talent.

Heide Palermo has been promoted to VP, Head of Community for Adweek. Palermo has been integral to growing and fostering Adweek’s brand community over the past two years, supporting marketing leaders through inspirational content, curated networking and mentorship opportunities, and forward-looking events. In her elevated role, Palermo will focus on connecting communities further, as well as mining and sharing best practices to drive the industry forward.

“As Adweek continues to expand its efforts to grow our audience and serve the brand marketing community, it’s important to recognize the accomplishments of the leaders responsible for getting us where we are today,” said Adweek CEO Jeffrey Litvack. “Enhancing our visual brand and digital experience, expanding our paying audience and more deeply connecting with this community of marketing leaders—these are pillars of our growth strategy. The expertise of this executive leadership team puts Adweek in an excellent position for continued exponential growth.”

 

About Adweek
Adweek is the leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem. First published in 1979, Adweek’s award-winning coverage reaches an engaged audience of more than 6 million professionals across platforms including print, digital, events, podcasts, newsletters, social media and mobile apps. As a touchstone of the advertising and marketing community, Adweek is an unparalleled resource for leaders across multiple industries who rely on its content to help them do their job better.