Hills promotes Miralay as CMO O'Shaughnessy leaves firm

William Hill has promoted director of change Cem Miralay to the newly created role of chief customer officer (CCO) following the sudden departure of CMO Alex O’Shaughnessy, EGR has learned.

The CCO role is a blend of Miralay’s previous responsibilities and O’Shaughnessy’s CMO duties who leaves the firm after more than eight years at the operator.

According to Hills, Miralay’s new role will ensure the operator retains customer focus across all channels and business areas, with Miralay assuming responsibility for the end-to-end customer journey across the Group.

Miralay’s duties will also include brand marketing and customer and user experience strategy.

“Cem will work with the four global division leads, Crispin Nieboer, Nicola Frampton, Tom Waterhouse and Joe Asher, to develop an end-to-end strategy across the customer journey, customer experience and brand,” William Hill’s interim CEO, Philip Bowcock, explained.

“It will mean a joined up approach from customer recruitment and engagement to registration and first bet through to ongoing customer relationship management.”

MIralay only joined Hills as director of change earlier this year having previously worked for three years at Betsson as chief experience officer and chief product officer.

“A clear definition and execution of an end-to-end customer experience strategy is critical to success in today’s gambling marketplace,” Miralay said.

“I am looking forward to working with Philip Bowcock and the key business heads to deliver the most compelling, entertaining and effortless experiences to all of our customers at William Hill.”

Miralay’s promotion comes after the soon-to-be-merged Ladbrokes Coral also recently announced the firm’s CMO Kristof Fahey would take on the same CCO role as Miralay has been given as part of its new management team.

William Hill is still currently on the hunt for a new CEO following the departure of James Henderson in July.