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LiveLike has named Hurriyeh Iftikhar vice president of marketing and Miles McDonald vice president of business development, the technology company said, while also adding entrepreneur Katherine Hays as a board advisor.
LiveLike provides technology to media and sports companies to “transform passive audiences into engagement communities,” it says. LiveLike offers broadcasters and programmers a virtual-reality platform and gamification engine, among other things.
“We are thrilled to be adding Katherine, Hurriyeh and Miles to a team that keeps getting stronger, and we look forward to tapping into their expertise,” said LiveLike Co-founder and CEO Miheer Walavalkar in a statement. “Innovation is key to LiveLike’s DNA. As we continue to push for digital empowerment, we find ourselves strongly positioned to enter the next phase of interactivity: from gamification to sports wagering, commerce, and expansion into other industries and around the world.”
Iftikhar, the company’s first Canadian hire, will lead LiveLike’s marketing and branding efforts, both externally and internally. Prior to joining LiveLike, Iftikhar led client relations and strategy at Canada digital marketing agency Elite Digital. She’s also held executive and advisory roles at technology start-ups in the Middle East/North Africa region of the world, backed by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms.
McDonald will lead sales efforts, managing the company’s partnership development initiatives and identifying and growing new sales verticals. McDonald joined LiveLike from Verizon Media, where he was a digital advertising sales director.
Previously, he launched Dunkin’ Brands’ first-ever loyalty program, DD Perks, and developed multi-platform digital advertising and marketing campaigns for Yahoo.
Hays is an entrepreneur and global business leader who serves on several boards of directors. She was the founder and CEO of Vivoom, Inc.; CEO of GenArts, Inc. (an Insight Partners portfolio company, acquired by Boris FX); and co-founder, CFO and COO of in-game advertising company Massive, Inc. (acquired by Microsoft).
She currently serves as an advisor and board member to early-stage companies in the sports and media, travel, e-sports and video gaming industries and as a member of the Alumni Advisory Board for the Princeton University Entrepreneurship Council.
“As the past year and a half has made very clear, audiences are actively seeking deeper ways to connect, interact, compete, and engage around their passions,” Hays said in a statement. “I believe there is an opportunity to do what Pinduoduo has done for shopping across the sports and entertainment industries – enabling fan-to-fan interactions that closely resemble how you might interact if watching a live event in person – and create significant value for both the fans and the content and sports rights owners. LiveLike’s technology positions the company as an ideal partner for sports and entertainment companies looking to realize this opportunity, and I’m excited to be joining LiveLike as an advisor to help support Miheer and his team as they scale their partnerships and solution.”
In addition to Hays, LiveLike Board advisors include John Kosner (Kosner Media, 21-year ESPN executive), Jay Adya (Elysian Park Ventures), Andrew Cox (former chief strategy officer, Stats Perform) and Monique Ellis (CHILAM), with Board directors including Walavalkar, Jon Goldman (Greycroft), Nikolay Dyachkov (USM Group, CM Ventures) and Bob Stanley (Evolution Media Capital).
