Exclusive: Smarkets adds chief people officer and chief product officer to senior team
Betting exchange welcomes comms chief back from maternity leave to head up HR and taps drone industry for product lead
Smarkets has bolstered its C-suite with the appointment of a new chief people officer and chief product officer, EGR can exclusively reveal.
Céline Crawford has been installed as chief people officer, returning to the operator after maternity leave.
Crawford previously served as chief communications officer and has worked at the company since 2015.
In her role as chief people officer, she will oversee Smarkets’ HR, company culture and recruitment across its three offices in London, Los Angeles and Malta.
Additionally, Arnaud Thiercelin joins as chief product officer from drone software company Auterion.
As chief product officer, Thiercelin will lead the development of both the Smarkets betting exchange and the operator’s SBK sportsbook.
The pair will both report into Smarkets founder and CEO Jason Trost.
Speaking on her return, Crawford said: “I’m proud to be part of a company like Smarkets that elevates women while they are away on maternity leave, juggling the art of caregiving and parenting. I also believe Smarkets has a compelling product proposition to win in betting.”
Thiercelin commented: “I’m passionate about creating products that customers love and what Smarkets is building has limitless potential. This is an industry ripe for change and I’m excited to be a part of that.”
Touching on the addition of the pair to his executive team, Trost noted: “I’m delighted to welcome Céline back as chief people officer on the Smarkets leadership team.
“She’s helped grow the business to where it is today while Arnaud is someone I’m very excited to build products with. We all have our sights set very high for this company,” he added.
Elsewhere, Smarkets has promoted Joe Foulds to the newly created role of head of engineering where he will help oversee the company’s software engineering, reporting to chief technology officer Hrafn Eiriksson.
Foulds joined Smarkets in August 2020 as a software engineer before being promoted to lead engineer in June 2021.
Last year, Smarkets closed a Series B funding round, its first external investment since a Series A round in 2013 taking total capital raised £3.8m.