AUDIENCES Strengthens Leadership Team Following Investment to Accelerate Global Growth

London, UK – 19th November 2025 - AUDIENCES, the market leader in first-party data activation software company that enables brands and data owners to activate their customer data securely within their own cloud environments, has expanded its senior leadership team with three strategic hires across technology, marketing and sales.

The appointments follow the company’s recent announcement of their £2.1 million investment round, led by FirstPartyCapital (FPC) with continued support from Haatch, to accelerate market growth and platform innovation. Already working with leading brands including Pets at Home, Saga, and Becton Dickinson, AUDIENCES partners with cloud and data warehouses such as Snowflake, Databricks, Google, AWS and Microsoft Azure as well as agencies across major holding groups and independent networks.

Joining the leadership team are Irin Rahman as Chief Technology Officer, Helen Mussard as VP of Marketing, and Kalpana Jayaram as Sales Director. Together, they bring a wealth of global experience in data technology, enterprise solutions, and commercial growth across the advertising, marketing, and cloud ecosystem.

Experienced Leadership to Power the Next Phase of Growth

Irin Rahman, Chief Technology Officer, joins AUDIENCES after a distinguished career at the intersection of data, technology and creativity. Over the past 14 years, Irin has held senior roles leading transformation across WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, Dentsu and Heineken, most recently serving as Chief Data, Technology & Product Officer at Wavemaker (WPP). Her expertise spans cloud architecture, AI innovation, and large-scale data product development for global brands. She has also advised the U.K. Government's AI Council and the E.U's AI council on data safely and applied AI propositions. “I’ve spent my career helping brands bridge technology, intelligence and creativity,” said Irin Rahman, Chief Technology Officer, AUDIENCES. “AUDIENCES sits at the centre of that evolution, solving one of the most important challenges facing our industry: how to activate first-party data securely, responsibly, and with measurable impact. It’s rare to find a company so deeply grounded in both technical rigour and human understanding.”

Helen Mussard, VP of Marketing, joins from IAB Europe, where as Chief Marketing Officer she led marketing and cross-industry collaboration for the European-level association. Having previously worked in London, Berlin and New York across AdTech, PR, and communications, Helen brings two decades of global marketing and media experience to AUDIENCES. “This is a pivotal moment for the industry,” said Helen Mussard, VP of Marketing, AUDIENCES. “As brands accelerate their first-party data strategies, they need solutions that deliver both performance and privacy assurance. AUDIENCES provides exactly that. A UK-founded, cloud-native platform built after GDPR, by practitioners who understand the real-world complexity of activation. I’m thrilled to help bring this message to market and support the company’s next stage of growth.”

Kalpana Jayaram, Sales Director, has extensive experience spanning customer data, martech and enterprise software, Kalpana has built a reputation for helping organisations operationalise their data assets responsibly and effectively at organisations such as Infosum, (now WPP) Mapp, Crownpeak and Lotame (now Publicis). “AUDIENCES represents the next evolution in how brands and data owners think about data activation,” said Kalpana Jayaram, Sales Director, AUDIENCES. “By deploying natively within the customer’s own cloud, it removes many of the operational and compliance barriers that have held organisations back. It’s a model that’s as elegant technically as it is commercially and I’m excited to help share this with new and existing partners.”

Rob McLaughlin, CEO & Co-Founder of AUDIENCES, added: “These hires mark an important milestone for AUDIENCES as we scale to meet growing global demand. Irin, Helen and Kalpana each bring exceptional expertise, energy and perspective from across the ecosystem, sharing our belief that privacy, performance and practicality can, and must, coexist. Their arrival strengthens our ability to grow internationally, innovate faster, and serve our clients even better.”

Powering a Privacy-First Future

AUDIENCES pioneered the model that allows brands to leverage first-party customer data from within their own cloud infrastructure. As the first company to deliver a fully cloud-native application deployed entirely inside a brand’s environment, AUDIENCES ensures that data never leaves the organisation and the brand remains the data controller at all times. This architecture, created and proven by AUDIENCES, removes the privacy, security and operational risks associated with external processors. It enables brands to see and activate first-party and proprietary data in real-time, with complete transparency and without exposing data to third parties.

By defining this approach early and delivering at scale, AUDIENCES continues to set the standard for what modern, privacy-first audience activations should be.