Prophet names James Sawyer VP to drive predictive growth in ANZ
Prophet has appointed James Sawyer as Vice President Sales and Partnerships, expanding its presence to support increasing demand for decision intelligence solutions in Australia.
Sawyer's appointment marks Prophet's first dedicated role in Sydney as the company targets growth in both Sydney and Brisbane. His responsibilities include driving growth in these key markets, strengthening collaborations with brands, agencies, and commercial partners, and positioning Prophet within the predictive decision intelligence sector. He will report directly to Paul Veltman, Chief Growth Officer.
After a 25-year career within media, marketing, and sales across the Asia Pacific region Sawyer joins Prophet. His previous roles include Managing Director Australia and New Zealand at TotallyAwesome, as well as 13 years with Ikon Communications, most recently serving as Managing Director across Sydney and Melbourne. He has also held the position of Head of Media at Foxtel and worked in senior roles at Carat and DDB. Most recently, Sawyer operated his own consultancy for the communications and marketing sector, providing services to industry bodies, publishers, media agencies, digital consultancies, and start-ups.
Prophet Chief Executive Officer Jordan Taylor-Bartels outlined the reasons behind the appointment and the company's strategy for continued expansion.
"Prophet is growing rapidly, and as our customer base continues to expand across Sydney and beyond, strengthening our presence on the ground is key to accelerating our next phase of growth. We've onboarded more than 30 enterprise customers to date, and that momentum continues as more companies recognise the power of decision intelligence.
"By creating digital clones of organisations, we enable decisions to be tested before they're made. This helps businesses understand impact, explore possibilities and act with confidence. James will play a key role in expanding our reach and helping organisations cut through complexity to see what truly drives results."
Paul Veltman indicated that further commercial appointments would follow as the business continues to grow in the region.
"Our business is expanding rapidly across the ANZ region and to meet this growing demand we're strengthening our team with diverse, high calibre talent. James is the ideal addition for this pivotal new role. His experience across client, agency and consulting gives him a unique perspective on the challenges marketers face and how to drive meaningful business growth," he said.
Sawyer himself reflected on the evolving media landscape and his own motivation for taking up the new role.
"The media ecosystem has never been more complex, which is exactly why I joined Prophet. It's offering the kind of clarity and predictive intelligence the industry desperately needs.
"Having worked across agency, client, publisher and consultancy roles, I've seen firsthand how powerful it is when brands have a clear view of what truly drives performance - and that's exactly what Prophet delivers.
"As VP of Sales and Partnerships, my focus is on positioning Prophet as the go-to partner for predictive intelligence, helping brands, agencies and publishers make smarter, more accountable decisions. I couldn't be more excited to join the team."
Sawyer's appointment is effective immediately and is intended to support continued expansion as demand for predictive decision intelligence rises across Australia and New Zealand.
Prophet background
Prophet was founded by Jordan Taylor-Bartels, a former Hyperloop Global Marketing lead, and Sean Taylor, a former Ogilvy and VMLY&R Commerce CEO. The Melbourne-based business commenced operations in 2024, offering brands mathematical insights into the performance of their marketing functions and approaches to improvement.
Since launching, Prophet reports a rapid uptick in customer acquisition across a variety of sectors including retail, insurance, automotive, media, on-demand delivery, wagering, and cybersecurity. The business aims to equip organisations with analytics that allow decision makers to test, measure, and optimise outcomes before implementing changes, leveraging mathematical modelling and real-time data.
