Digital youth engagement platform, Year13, has boosted its ranks with three senior appointments following a $10m investment from Future Now Capital, in advance of its rollout to agencies nationally.
The appointments come as Year13 has doubled in size within 12 months to 70 team members.
Of the new hires, Year13 has bolstered its senior leadership team to include chief financial officer, Chris Adams (former CFO, GroupM); chief marketing officer, Simon Greally (former CEO, Indy Data Science and one-time breakfast radio guru); and national commercial director, Ann-Maree Mulders (ex-national client partnerships director at Seven West Media’s magazine division Pacific).
Year13 co-founders, Saxon Phipps and Will Stubley, commented on the significant growth of the business. “It’s been an absolutely huge 12 months for Year13 and we are delighted to have Chris, Simon and Annie join the team at such a crucial time for the business. Ultimately at our core, we want to empower all Gen Z’s with the digital community, tools, and support at scale via the Year13 platform,” said Phipps.
Through virtual careers expos, social channels, and working with government, industry, schools, employers and national brands, Year13 is building connections between young people and the world ahead to set them up for success. The company connects with 1.6 million young Australians online by providing them with lifestyle inspiration, support and opportunity as they navigate their youth. In August alone the platform reached 3.6 million across its social channels.
Ann-Maree Mulders, newly appointed national commercial director said, “Year13 is an incredible business 100% committed to supporting young Australians to lead happier healthier more fulfilled lives. We connect with Gen Z when they’re making big life decisions and when they’re in an exploratory and learning mindset. It’s a purposeful, influential and trusted connection. The opportunity for brands to harness this connection through our rich content suite and E-learning platform is significant.”
Chief marketing officer, Simon Greally added, “What an exciting time to be part of the Year13 brand. We’ve got a relentless focus to continue to grow our large digital community, while building personalised online content experiences. Our partnerships with Tealium and Braze help us deliver work class data personalisation, UX and targeting for our audience across our large digital and social network. Additionally, all of Year13 content is produced by Gen Z’s for Gen Z, which is why the brand is so popular with the demo.”
In addition to its senior hires, Year13 has also appointed the independent PR agency, Thrive PR + Communications for consumer and corporate PR services.
Photo: Chris Adams, Simon Greally and Ann-Maree Mulders