Twitch, the online streaming service for the gaming community owned by Amazon, has poached a senior Facebook executive to run the EMEA operation in a newly created role.
Damian Burns, senior director of gaming EMEA at Facebook, is leaving the social media behemoth after five years to become Twitch’s first EMEA managing director.
At Twitch, Burns is tasked with executing Twitch’s vision, strategy and day-to-day operations. He will be based in London and lead the office’s efforts to grow the Twitch community for the benefit of content creators, media partners, agencies, advertisers, publishers and developers.
Between 2015 and 2017, Burns was Facebook’s head of sales for Atlas, the platform’s ad server, before it was phased out. He went on to become senior director of gaming for EMEA, leading Facebook’s gaming business.
Burns had previously worked at Google for 10 years, most recently as head of agency relations for EMEA, leading Google's strategy, revenue and relationships with global agency holding companies and their biggest advertising clients. He was a founding member of Publicis Groupe media agency Zenith’s first digital outfit, Zed Media, almost 20 years ago.
Sara Clemens, chief operating officer at Twitch, said: "Damian’s deep experience in digital advertising, gaming and community services make him the ideal partner to help realise the potential of multiplayer entertainment."
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