Sky hires new marketing boss as it creates first chief marketing and corporate affairs role

Sky is bringing in a new marketing boss, with Debbie Klein, the boss of communications agency Engine, set to join the broadcaster in the newly-created role of group chief marketing and corporate affairs officer.

Klein knows the Sky business well as the company is a client of Engine. This will be her first move client side, having held a number of roles at creative agency WCRS, which is part of Engine Group, since joining in 1999, including CEO and chairman. She moved up to lead Engine in 2010, before taking on her current role as CEO across Europe and Asia Pacific two years ago.

The group CMO job at Sky has been open since Stephen van Rooyen was promoted to chief executive of its UK and Ireland operations in 2016. Currently, Sky has a number of country CMOs, including Luke Bradley Jones in the UK, but there was no group-level CMO.

Klein will be responsible for Sky’s overall brand and marketing development, as well as assuming leadership for corporate affairs and Sky’s ‘Bigger Picture’ programme, which looks at how Sky can be a responsible business. She will report into Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch and join the group’s executive leadership team.

Darroch says: “We are delighted to welcome Debbie to Sky. She is an outstanding leader, who has an excellent track record and I know that she will be a great addition to our leadership team. We are all very much looking forward to working with her as a colleague, as we build the next chapter of Sky.”

Klein’s start date is yet to be confirmed as Engine search for a replacement to lead its Europe business.

Klein adds: “I have loved working with Jeremy and the team at Sky as clients over many years, so the opportunity to step inside at such an exciting time and be part of shaping the future was one I simply could not pass up. It has been a privilege to lead Engine and I know I leave it in great shape, with an outstanding leadership team who will continue to grow and evolve it.”