Vokal Announces New Senior Level Positions
Chicago-Based growth consultancy, Vokal, has announced three new senior hires and four hires overall as the company plans to grow 40% this year, providing digital growth services to five new brands across its client roster in 2021. The company continues to see opportunity in mid-sized companies ranging a variety of sectors and has had success bringing these businesses valuable digital and growth strategies.
Senior level hires include: Joe Girolamo, vice president of strategy; Scott Edwards, vice president of product & growth marketing; Aliya Esmail, vice president of growth, Rachel Stepanov, principal.
“We are at an inflection point as a company and are excited to welcome each of these new team members who bring valuable skills helping us catapult to where we want to be,” said Reid Lappin, Founder and CEO. “Our north star is helping incumbent brands punch harder in the new digital landscape and in order to do that, we house world class talent who have each been key players at high growth startups.”
Joe Girolamo, vice president of strategy, joins Vokal in a newly created role and will be responsible for driving digital strategy for clients as well as strengthening and expanding Vokal’s growth initiatives. Formerly at Reverb, an online marketplace focused on new and used music gear, Girolamo quickly grew from a product designer to a senior manager overseeing growth. Under his leadership, Reverb’s product team delivered a high-performing, high-growth marketplace platform that was so successful it was recently acquired by Etsy.
Scott Edwards, vice president of product and growth marketing, brings 15 years of experience building his own successful ventures, advising brands venturing into digital and leading ecommerce businesses to Vokal’s roster of national and international brands. Most recently, Edwards founded a specialty marketplace for the foodservice industry within Gordon Food Service called Orderve. The company won Magento’s Most Innovative Commerce Experience Magento Award 2020.
Rachel Stepanov is a principal on Vokal’s product team, focused on bringing digital innovation to Vokal's clients through product development. Prior to joining Vokal, Rachel worked in the travel space as an early employee of Rocket Travel, later acquired by Booking Holdings. During her more than six year tenure, she led product development for Rocket’s Travel’s flagship B2C business (Rocketmiles) and strategic marketing for the company’s portfolio of B2C and B2B2C business lines, before becoming Head of Ancillary Revenue.
Aliya Esmail is vice president of growth at Vokal where she specialises in finding midsize companies that are in need of generating growth using digital tools, tactics and platforms. Prior to joining Vokal, Aliya was Managing Partner at KD Holdings, where she bought struggling e-commerce businesses and implemented growth strategies to scale. Previously, Aliya worked at a hybrid venture capital firm and digital consulting company where she grew new digital products and businesses for Fortune 1000, mid-sized, and start-up companies.
This news follows three other hires across roles at the company: Mina Cosentino, product designer; Thomas Larriso, product growth manager; and Karie Casper, strategic growth manager. The company plans to hire three to five more strategic growth managers and product roles over the course of the next quarter.
