Boldspace appoints former Betfair, EE and West Ham marketeer as Senior Adviser

Brand building, communications and analytics agency Boldspace has appointed Karim Virani as a Senior Adviser.

Virani, who will work for Boldspace as a consultant on both the agency’s development and on client projects, brings a wealth of experience from large, ambitious and high-growth businesses.

He started his career at Sky in customer marketing before moving to senior positions at Betfair, EE and Seatwave in leadership roles spanning digital, CRM, performance marketing, product, social, and partnerships. Most recently he was Chief Commercial Officer at West Ham United FC, overseeing the commercial and digital teams, where he delivered record-breaking revenue growth over the course of five years. It was during this time at the club where Virani saw the potential impact of the agency’s data and analytics platform, BoldLens, on the club’s communications and management reporting, becoming one of its first clients.

Virani, who left West Ham last year, is also a Non Executive Director of Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) and UK Commercial Director at Socios.com, a new app for sports and esports fans.

Mike Robb, Co-founder and Managing Director at Boldspace, said: “I am particularly delighted to welcome Karim to the team given it was a conversation that started on the back of him buying into the Boldspace model by appointing us to work with West Ham on data and analytics. He brings unparalleled experience across a range of both high-growth and established businesses in a number of different sectors, and his data-first mindset is a great fit for everything we are doing with clients across our business.”

Commenting on his appointment, Karim Virani said: “The Boldspace model is one that interested me from the very beginning. The lines between channels are now so blurred but few agencies have been able to truly rise to this challenge and bring data and creativity together to enable them to provide objective advice to clients. To my mind, this is one of the areas I feel Boldspace really excel, and as a result is why I am so looking forward to working with the team to help them own this space.”

The appointment builds on a strong first year for the agency, which has now worked on more than 20 clients across a range of sectors since launch including the technology, healthcare, fintech, financial services, sport, ecommerce, and energy industries.