Google Hires Vanessa Kingori From Condé Nast U.K.

Tianwei Zhang
·3 min read
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LONDON — More changes are in the pipeline at Condé Nast in the U.K. as Vanessa Kingori, chief business officer at Condé Nast Britain and Vogue European business adviser, plans to leave the company to join Google.

Kingori will join Google in 2024 as managing director of tech, media and telecoms. She forms part of a trio of female senior executive hires to be revealed by the tech giant on Tuesday.

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In a statement Kingori said: “The lure of pivoting my career to apply my love of positive, transformational leadership at this key moment of change at Google feels urgent and is a dream realized.

“Having a seat at the table to drive a focus on deep relationships, learning and partnership to create positive outcomes for all, in the era of AI, is a privilege. It’s an exciting new frontier.”

Kingori will report to Debbie Weinstein, vice president and managing director of Google U.K. and Ireland.

She will focus on helping U.K.-based businesses drive growth through AI-powered technology and advertising solutions.

Weinstein noted: “As the U.K. continues to solidify its standing as a global leader in AI, businesses across the country have an extraordinary opportunity to harness this powerful technology to transform their operations, expand into new markets, and achieve unprecedented growth. I’m delighted to have three incredibly talented new leaders join my team to help businesses unlock creativity, innovation and new possibilities through AI-powered advertising solutions.”

Kingori has worked at Condé Nast Britain for the past 15 years. She was appointed publisher of British GQ in 2015, and became publishing director of British Vogue in 2017.

In 2021 she took up the role of chief business officer at Condé Nast Britain and Vogue European Business adviser as part of a sweeping reorganization — and streamlining — of the editorial and publishing structures at the company.

A well-known figure in London media, Kingori was Condé Nast Britain’s first Black publisher, and the first female business leader in British Vogue‘s history.

Prior to joining Condé, she worked at London’s Evening Standard and Esquire in Britain.

Kingori’s departure comes amid Condé Nast’s global restructuring under chief executive officer Roger Lynch and Anna Wintour, global chief content officer for Condé Nast and editor in chief of American Vogue.

Next spring, Edward Enninful will step away from his post as editor in chief of British Vogue to take on the new position of global creative and cultural adviser at Vogue. He will also become an editorial adviser at British Vogue.

Chioma Nnadi, who was named head of editorial content at British Vogue in September, will take over the responsibilities of day-to-day running of the magazine from Enninful, mirroring the situation at all of Condé Nast’s titles.

The restructuring has had little impact on the publisher’s profitability outside the U.S.

According to accounts filed at Companies House in the U.K., Condé Nast Holdings Ltd., which oversees print, digital and special events business in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Spain, posted a 41 percent drop in profits to 15.6 million pounds for the 12 months to Dec. 31, 2022.

Turnover in the period was down 4 percent to 254.2 million pounds.

The company, which describes itself as “digital first,” saw newsstand and subscription sales decline by 21 percent to 42.4 million pounds in the 12-month period, while ad revenues were broadly flat at 211.8 million pounds.

Extraordinary losses in the period totaled 3.1 million pounds compared with 13.1 million pounds in the previous period. They resulted from a number of factors including restructuring costs, which Condé said were mainly due to staff severance pay as the publisher reorganizes its editorial and commercial teams.

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