NEW YORK: Target’s former comms head, Dustee Jenkins, has resurfaced as Spotify’s global head of communications and public relations.
Jenkins will start in the newly created position later this year and relocate her family from Minneapolis to New York for the job. She will report to Spotify CMO Seth Farbman with responsibility for global internal and external comms, a source familiar with the matter told PRWeek.
Jenkins declined to comment on the position.
She will join Spotify as it prepares to go public, possibly via a direct listing rather than an IPO, in the coming months. The Sweden-based streaming service said in July that it had hit 60 million paying users. Spotify investor GP Bullhound said he sees that number hitting 100 million by mid-2018, according to CNBC.
Jenkins previously served as Target’s EVP and chief communications officer. She left the retailer after seven years in June. Katie Boylan, communications VP at Target, replaced her.
Jenkins started her tenure at Target in 2010 as VP of PR. She was promoted to SVP of communications and joined the company’s executive team in August 2015 and later added chief communications officer to her title.
Jenkins worked on the launch of the brand’s first online magazine, called A Bullseye View, and helped to introduce CEO Brian Cornell in 2014. She also managed communications responding to its 2013 data breach.
In January 2015, Cornell asked Jenkins to take over internal communications. Jenkins and her team created Target’s internal morning email newsletter, known as Briefly.
Prior to joining Target, Jenkins was director of the Dallas office for Public Strategies, which is now part of Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Before that, she was director of communications for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in President George W. Bush’s administration.
