Acast bolsters local team with ex-SCA and Nova executives

Pictured: Tom Roach is Acast Australia's new creative strategy lead.

Following the split from NOVA Entertainment last week, podcasting company Acast has announced six new hires across its Australian sales and creative teams.

Among the new recruits is former Southern Cross Austereo exec, Tom Roach. He was previously the strategy and insights manager at SCA, where he led the Sydney-based strategy team.

Roach joins Acast as the company’s new local creative strategy lead, effective immediately.

Katalina Haddad, a former client engagement executive at Nova, also joins Acast this month, along with Isabella Gibson-Giorgio, Michelle Smith, Diana Lee and Teresa Ly.

Their arrivals follow the recent appointments of seasoned media players Adam King and Liam Daly, who each joined the Sydney office in April as group sales leads.

Both King and Daly will report directly into Acast’s regional managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Henrik Isaksson, who said the business is in a “privileged position” to be hiring.

Pictured: Acast Australia boss Henrik Isaksson has been on a hiring spree.

“The team now offers Australia’s most comprehensive insights, strategy and sales unit that’s solely dedicated to podcasting,” Isaksson said in a statement on Tuesday (September 8).

“They represent the next stage of growth and present a huge opportunity for any brand looking to maximise the potential of their investment and sales objectives with podcasting.”

Isaksson also revealed that the decision to build Acast’s local sales team is something its publishers, podcasters and clients have been asking for.

The hires come as Australia’s podcast market continues to hit record listener and revenue numbers in August. Acast said it again exceed 31 million local listens last month.

Acasts’s ex, Nova, also announced a major hire today as it prepares to double-down on audio.

The network has secured former Triple M presenter and Mamamia executive, Rachel Corbett, as its new head of podcasting. She starts October 5 and will lead a team of digital content creators.