WeAre8, a social ecosystem driving transformational change for people, communities, and brands, has today announced the promotion of Laura Chase from Chief Commercial Officer to Managing Director of WeAre8 in the United Kingdom.
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Expanding upon her commercial remit, Laura Chase will lead WeAre8’s overall business operations in the UK market in the newly created role that will report directly to WeAre8 Global Chief Business Officer, Hayley Cochrane.

Commenting on the appointment, WeAre8 Founder and CEO, Zoe Kalar, said: “Laura has been a big part of our success to date in her role as Chief Commercial Officer. The elevation to Managing Director will enable her to spread her expertise and strategic thinking into other areas of the business.

“We have built a transformational framework to make the world of social a healthier place to belong, alongside world-first technology that delivers attention and engagement for brands far beyond other platforms in the market. Laura’s appointment and our new structure will enable us to elevate our awareness and contribute to our ongoing success.”

Hayley Cochrane, Global Chief Business Officer said: “Laura's appointment is a testament to her exceptional leadership, innovative thinking and her unwavering commitment to solutions that drive our industry forward. In recent times, outside of leading our commercial success, Laura has led content deals with world-class publishers like BBC Studios, The Independent and HELLO! And has been a big contributor to major projects with providers such as Lumen and GWI, that help inform the future of the WeAre8 ecosystem.  She brings a holistic view on what the business needs to succeed and I am absolutely thrilled to see the incremental growth and success that will come with Laura being at the helm.

On her appointment, Laura Chase said: “I couldn’t be prouder to be the Managing Director of WeAre8 UK. It’s been an absolute privilege to be with the business since the very early days, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to widen my remit and contribute more broadly to our growth and continued success.

“I believe that when we come together, absolutely everything is possible - with the support of Zoe, Hayley and my wonderful team, I look forward to all that’s ahead as we power a brighter, happier, healthier future for brands, people, communities, and the planet.”

The announcement follows recent executive appointments for WeAre8, including a new managing director in Australia with the appointment of former TikTok executive, Danika Johnston, and last year's appointment of John Rohl as Chief Financial Officer. These roles sit alongside the rest of the WeAre8 executive team, including Global Chief Business Officer, Hayley Cochrane, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Luke Robinson, and Chief Technology Officer, George Taskos.

What sets WeAre8 apart from other social communities?

WeAre8 is a social ecosystem with no anonymity and toxic algorithms and is out to democratize how citizens, charities and climate change projects benefit from advertising in a new social home.

WeAre8 features two content feeds, a public feed called the 8Stage and a private Friends Feed. The 8Stage features content from creators, world class publishers like BBC Earth, PinkNews, LadBible, Hello!. The Friends Feed allows you to see content only from your approved connections.

WeAre8 enforces a positive social media sentiment with high levels of moderation from human teams and AI moderation to create a healthier social community. WeAre8 actively encourages its Citizens (what Users are known as on WeAre8) to spend more time off screen.

Advertising on WeAre8 is opt-in, not forced upon people in a content feed and is only shown when a person agrees to watch the advertisement. For every video watched, 60% of every £ spent in advertising on WeAre8 is shared with people, charity and climate change projects. Once a video is viewed, the micropayment is placed in people’s WeAre8 Wallet. Money can then be paid forward to charity or cashed out of WeAre8 via PayPal.

As it's an opt-in model, there's zero waste on a brand's digital investment and every campaign is carbon neutral in partnership with Ecologi.

Recent findings from audience insight company, Lumen and emissions data agency, Scope3, found that WeAre8’s ad model achieves a staggering 67 times* more attention per gram of carbon emitted compared to a mainstream platform like Instagram. *2023 Lumen Study.

WeAre8 is a B-Corp certified business, which means it operates at the highest level of social and environmental performance. In 2023 WeAre8 pledged it support behind the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital, as a signatory on the ‘Inspired Internet Pledge’, an industry-wide initiative to make the internet a safer and healthier place

WeAre8 is available to download in the UK, Australia and the USA and  redirected more than US$2,000,000 back to the 8Community in 2023.