Google parts ways with advertising chief Dan Cobley

Google’s vice president of brand solutions for EMEA Dan Cobley has left the business to set up his own technology start-up just months after from taking up the newly-created post.

Google
Google has yet to announce its new brand advertising chief for the EMEA.

Cobley’s eight and a half years at the business ends next month when he departs to launch a London-based financial technology incubator in partnership with venture capitalists Blenheim Chalcot and QED Investors. He plans to build a small number of companies offering financial service alternatives to banks.

“The decision to leave Google is a really tough one, and I will miss the place hugely. But I have always wanted to run my own thing, and having secured the support of such amazing backers there will never be a better time to make the leap”, says Cobley.

He joined Google in 2006 as UK marketing director and went on to serve as European marketing chief before being promoted to managing director for the UK business in 2011. Prior to joining at Google, he was vice president of marketing at Capital One.

Google declined to say who would take the reins in Cobley’s absence. The timing of the exit is set to knock the company’s efforts to accelerate advertising revenues across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Cobley would have been tasked with brokering high-level advertising strategies with both marketers and agencies at a time when the business is pushing to sate demand for more targeted campaigns and mobile services across its network.

Recommended

Teenager on computer

‘Teens the most tech-savvy’

Sarah Vizard

The ‘millennium generation’ of 14 and 15 year olds are the most technology-savvy in the UK, benefitting from access to broadband and digital communications while growing up, according to research.