The chief business officer of Condé Nast Britain, Vanessa Kingori OBE, is departing the publisher after 15 years to join Google.
Kingori will start work next year as Google’s managing director of tech, media and telecoms (TMT) for the UK, reporting to Debbie Weinstein, the vice president and managing director of Google UK and Ireland.
Google said Kingori, alongside Sophie Neary and Dyana Najdi who have both also been appointed managing directors, “will focus on helping UK-based businesses drive growth through AI-powered technology and advertising solutions”.
Weinstein said of the appointments: “As the UK continues to solidify its standing as a global leader in AI, businesses across the country have an extraordinary opportunity to harness this powerful technology to transform their operations, expand into new markets, and achieve unprecedented growth.”
As well as her role across Condé Nast Britain, Kingori has served as publishing director of British Vogue since 2017 and was publisher of British GQ prior to that.
Google said Kingori has appeared on Powerful Media’s list of the 100 most influential black Britons each year for the past eight, and this year she was voted “the overall most powerful black executive in Britain” in the same poll.
In January Kingori was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the media industry.
Kingori said: “We are living through an inflection point that will undoubtedly continue to evolve every business, career, and our lives more generally. The lure of pivoting my career to apply my love of positive, transformational leadership at this key moment of change at Google feels urgent and is a dream realised.
“Having a seat at the table to drive a focus on deep relationships, learning and partnership to create positive outcomes for all, in the era of AI, is a privilege. It’s an exciting new frontier.”
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