DGTL Holdings Inc. (TSX-V:DGTL, OTCQB:DGTHF) has announced senior appointments after the successful completion of its merger with Engagement Labs (TSX-V:EL).
The company said founder and director John Belfontaine has been appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of the board of DGTL Holdings as well as sole director of Engagement Labs,
It noted that Steven M. Brown has been appointed to the role of chief commercial officer (CCO) of DGTL, overseeing all business development initiatives for Engagement Labs, Hashoff LLC and future potential subsidiaries of DGTL. He will also continue as the president and chief revenue officer of Engagement Labs.
Brown has a track record of success in the digital media and marketing industry and has guided several high-performance business development teams for global industry powerhouse companies, such as United Online, IGN/News Corp, and Viacom/CBS Radio. Previously, he served as chief revenue officer of ViewLift, a global streaming technologies company, and senior vice president of Platform Sales and Advertising Solutions for NeuLion a leading OTT technology company. Under his leadership, NeuLion experienced unprecedented customer growth and was sold to Endeavor in 2018 in an all-cash transaction valued over $300 million.
READ: DGTL Holdings says unit signs social content marketing campaign contract with world's largest beer producer
DGTL also announced the appointment of Bruce Lev to its board of directors. Lev is the Managing Director of Loeb Holding Corporation with over 30 years of experience in capital markets. He is the former Vice Chairman and Director of USCO Logistics and former Executive Vice President of Corporate and Legal Affairs of Micro Warehouse Inc.
Lev also served as a former director of the Roper Organization. He is also a former vice-chairman of AirDat, LLC, and a former board member of Integral Systems Inc. Lev also served as a board member and Audit Committee chairman of Virtual Scopics Inc. He is also on the board and member of multiple committees of Intersections Inc. Lev is a graduate of Wesleyan University and University of Virginia School of Law.
DGTL said it has appointed Phil Frank as the new managing director of Hashoff LLC. With 25 years of experience in digital media and adtech, Frank's career has been focused on building global enterprise-level advertising and data-driven marketing platforms. Frank is a first-generation digital marketer, joining Infoseek in early 1995. His proven leadership experience includes vice president of Sales at AOL, as well as head of Advertiser Relations at Collective, and senior advisor to leading digital marketing firms. Frank was the former chief revenue officer of Batanga which was acquired by Univision to become the largest multicultural digital platform in the world.
"We are pleased to welcome the newly appointed officers and directors to the newly enhanced DGTL leadership team. These executives come to DGTL with a track record of success and extensive experience in both the operations of growth-stage digital media conglomerates and the effective governance of publicly-traded companies in the small capital technology market," DGTL CEO John Belfontaine said in a statement.
"Management is focused on achieving long-term shareholder value by dedicating collective efforts and resources to thriving in the global digital media sector by streamlining operations, growing revenues and profitability continuing to acquire and accelerate commercialized enterprise software assets," he added.
Meanwhile, Engagement Labs noted that the former chief executive officer, Ed Keller, and former chief technology officer, Cedric de Saint Leger, have left Engagement Labs and its subsidiaries. It added that Steven Goldberg and Michael Racic have resigned as officers and directors of the company.
The company also updated on its near-term corporate integration projects and long-term organizational development plans, with the newly enhanced senior management now focused on phase one integration of the administration, accounting and organizational structure and reporting requirements of its combined entities.
In the near term, the goal is to develop a seamless transition of Engagement Labs and to maximize efficiency of the executive administration with significant cost-saving measures to reduce operating expenses and achieve consistent cashflow positivity. Cost-saving measures include the significant reduction of management wages, office closures and the delisting of Engagement Labs from the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange. DGTL will maintain its current listing on the TSXV, OTC Markets and FSE Markets.
Phase two will focus on building an amalgamated business development department supervised by DGTL's new chief commercial officer. This process will begin with actively training the collective sales, marketing account management teams on all of the products and services under management to nurture and harvest cross and up sales opportunities. The goal is organic revenue growth within the portfolio by onboarding existing clients on both the Hashoff and Total Social platforms. The process will be extended to identifying new reseller and channel partners in underserved markets to assist in continuing to diversify the collective client mix.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com