Digital consulting firm Omnigon has hired industry veteran Phil Sharpe as its senior vice president of client strategy and engagement, a move made in part to manage recent growth that has seen the company open new offices in Los Angeles and St. Petersburg, Russia, and the acquisition of several major new clients.
Sharpe, in digital media and technology for the past quarter-century, spent the last 14 years with Turner in a variety of executive-level roles, including helping launch iterations of NASCAR.com and PGATour.com while they were under the management of Turner. Those properties have since moved to manage their digital assets more independently, with the aid of Omnigon.
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SHARPE
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Sharpe will be based primarily in New York and form part of an Omnigon senior leadership team that also includes Chief Executive Officer Igor Ulis and Chief Commercial Officer Dave Nugent.
“We weren’t specifically looking to fill a role. But looking at our business and the kind of footprint we now have, we did need another senior-level guy,” Nugent said. “Phil understands how to work in large corporate environments and bring big things of scale to market. Having a guy like this really matters and is going to allow us to do a whole lot more.”
Sharpe’s arrival comes as Omnigon continues to be one of the busiest digital firms in the sports space, and it is building the official mobile applications for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, scheduled to begin in September in England. The tournament is one of the largest international sports events in the world behind the FIFA World Cup, Olympics and Tour de France. The Rugby World Cup apps, slated to feature in-stadium enhancements in addition to news, scores, video highlights and other content, will be among the company’s largest projects in its nearly seven-year history.
“It’s not the largest for us in terms of revenue, compared to some of the multiyear clients we have. But it is going to be the largest thing we’ve ever done in terms of consumer usage,” Nugent said. “Literally billions of people follow this event, and the scope around it is pretty awe inspiring.”
Omnigon has doubled its employee base in the last 18 months to more than 140 people.
