Barclays hires global MD of brand, creative and media

Barclays has appointed former Virgin Media O2 director of brand and marketing Simon Groves as global managing director of brand, creative and media, a new role for the bank.

Groves joins Barclays after 23 years at Virgin Media O2 and will report to Nina Bibby, group chief marketing officer. The pair worked together at O2, with Groves joining Barclays nearly 12 months after Bibby.

Bibby was CMO at O2 for eight years until 2021 before stepping down after the merger with Virgin Media. Groves, meanwhile, was director of brand and marcoms at O2 until 2021, and after the merger between O2 and Virgin he became director of brand and marketing.

Groves joined the telecoms provider in 2000 as corporate strategy and development manager before leaving when he was director of brand, marketing and customer experience strategy in 2012. He then spent six years at competitor Tesco Mobile before returning to O2 in 2018, where he remained until this month.