Agency

Influencer Hires Former McCann, SuperAwesome Executives as COO and Global CMO

Published on November 13, 2026

Creator marketing agency Influencer has appointed Chris Hansen, a former senior leader at SuperAwesome and Power Digital, as Chief Operating Officer, and Crystal Malachias, previously Global Head of Influencer at McCann, as Global Chief Marketing Officer.

The agency said the hires support its “Creator Marketing Engineer” operating model, which connects its Creator-First AEO, Creative, Media and Commerce services through shared technology, insights and workflows. Tara Walpert Levy has also joined Influencer as an adviser.

“Brands are asking creators to do more across their businesses, and that requires us to connect our services, technology and people in new ways,” said Ben Jeffries, co-founder and CEO of Influencer.

Hansen will lead operations and product, building the systems needed to run creator programs involving thousands of partnerships. His priorities include advancing Waves, the agency’s proprietary technology, and establishing a product marketing function. Influencer said Waves will underpin the operating model, helping teams identify talent, connect audience insights and manage creator programs.

“Our job is to make brand partnerships work for both sides,” Hansen said. “By connecting our technology and operations, we can give teams more time for creative thinking, strategy and creator relationships while making larger programs easier to execute.”

Malachias, who was also Global Co-Managing Director at McCann, built out McCann Content Studios, the agency’s social and influencer offering, across 16 markets. At Influencer, she will commercialize the Creator Marketing Engineer model and support expansion into 10 core global markets by the end of 2027.

“Brands should be able to walk through one front door for everything creators can do for their business, from campaigns and commerce to visibility in AI search,” Malachias said.

Demand for Integrated Services

Influencer said 90% of the RFPs and briefs it received over the past six months called for greater connection across AEO, Creative, Media and Commerce. The model builds on the “Marketing Engineer” concept established by AI marketing company Profound, whose partnership with Influencer also supports the Creator-First AEO offering the agency launched in August. According to the agency, performance data from the model will feed back into future briefs and investment decisions.

The appointments follow a run of senior hires drawn from the platforms Influencer partners with. The agency recently named Conor Thompson, who led TikTok MENA’s consumer client solutions team, as Executive Director, Brand Partnerships for the Middle East and North Africa. In May, it added Stuart Flint, former VP of Europe Sales at TikTok, to its advisory board.

Founded in 2015 by Jeffries and Caspar Lee, Influencer has teams in London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Riyadh and Dubai, and counts Google, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Nike, Monzo, Spotify and SharkNinja among its clients.