Thomas Hesse takes charge of newly merged Auctionata and Paddle8

Thomas Hesse, former digital business boss at Sony Music, has been appointed the chief executive of Auctionata and Paddle8, two online marketplaces for art that announced they were merging in May. Hesse takes over from Alexander Zacke, who founded Auctionata in 2012. A non-art world figure, Hesse was formerly the president of global digital business and US sales at Sony Music Entertainment and is a co-founder of the digital music video platform Vevo. The company’s new chief financial officer is Lucas Hülsmann, formerly of Procter & Gamble, while Zacke is now the company’s chief marketplace officer. More than a dozen Paddle8 employees, including the managing director Thomas Galbraith, Kate Brambilla, the senior director of business development, and, most recently, the head of communications, Sarah Goulet, have left the firm since its merger.