People Roundup: Zillow, BCG, Hemnet

This week's people roundup starts in the United States, before going to Europe...

North America: Zillow hires VP of External Affairs and Business Communications

Zillow has appointed Jaclyn Anderson as Vice President for External Affairs and Business Communications, joining from Starbucks to continue "a career spent helping companies navigate complex, high-visibility moments."

Anderson previously worked at Amazon as head of global corporate workplace PR and was most recently director of corporate reputation at Starbucks.

Anderson joins at a difficult time for Zillow, which is facing a string of high-profile lawsuits that scrutinise the portal's market leadership position. The portal operator also recently hired its first Chief Legal Officer, Cassandra Knight, ex-Google, to help shake up the firm's legal strategy.

Europe: Hemnet appoints new CRO

Hemnet has named Marcus Hartwall as the Swedish portal's new Chief Commercial Officer.

Hartwall joins Hemnet with extensive commercial leadership experience across digital marketplaces and property portals, most recently as Managing Director at Daft.ie. He will oversee Hemnet’s sales and partner organisation, driving commercial growth through extended real estate agent partnerships as the company expands its offering with free entry-level listings.

Marcus Westerlund, currently Chief Sales Officer, will transition to the company's Sales & Partnership Director.

Jonas Gustafsson, CEO of Hemnet, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Marcus Hartwall to Hemnet and our executive leadership team. Marcus brings a strong track record of scaling digital marketplaces, combined with highly relevant experience from Daft.ie, where he led a significant commercial transformation. His experience in strengthening partner value, increasing adoption of premium products and translating customer value into sustainable commercial growth will be highly valuable as Hemnet enters its next phase.”

Baltic Classifieds Group appoints Independent Non-Executive Director

Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG), the operator of several leading marketplace businesses in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, has appointed Sean Glithero as an independent non-executive director.

A post on BCG's LinkedIn page says:

Sean brings extensive financial, listed company and board-level experience, having previously served as CFO of Auto Trader Group and Funding Circle, as well as Interim CFO of ASOS. Sean has joined our Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committees and will take over as Chair of the Audit Committee from January 2027.

Trevor Mather, Chair at BCG, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Sean to the Board. His extensive financial and listed company experience will further strengthen the Board and make him well suited to chair our Audit Committee. We very much look forward to working with him."